Affiliation, Attraction, and Intimacy Flashcards
Aronson and Linder’s (1965) gain-loss theory predicts that we tend to:
A. forget the reasons why we were originally attracted to people we have close relationships with.
B. be affected more by the negative behaviors of people we have close relationships with than by their positive behaviors.
C. have stronger emotional reactions to people we’ve known for a shorter (versus a longer) period of time.
D. like others most when they first evaluate us negatively and, as they get to know us, evaluate us positively.
Answer D is correct. Research on the gain-loss theory has shown that we’re more attracted to people who initially dislike us but then change their minds as they get to know us than we are to people who express constant liking for us.
Byrne’s (1971) law of attraction focuses on which of the following?
A. attitude similarity
B. behavior intention
C. physical attractiveness
D. reciprocity
Answer A is correct. Byrne’s (1971) law of attraction states that there’s a positive relationship between attitude similarity and attraction and that this relationship is due to the fact that interacting with people who have similar attitudes is reinforcing because it validates our views and produces good feelings.
The “mere exposure effect” is most useful for explaining which of the following?
A. social loafing
B. interpersonal attraction
C. antisocial behavior
D. conformity to group norms
Answer B is correct. The mere exposure effect is “the tendency for people to come to like things simply because they see or encounter them repeatedly” (Baumeister & Bushman, 2013, p. 241).
Research on the “pratfall effect” has shown that, when a person makes an embarrassing mistake or blunder, this makes:
A. a competent person less attractive.
B. a competent person more attractive.
C. an average person more attractive.
D. a competent or average person less attractive
Answer B is correct. Aronson, Willerman, and Floyd’s (1966) research on the pratfall effect found that the attractiveness of a person who is perceived as being competent increases when that person commits a blunder, while the attractiveness of a person who is perceived as being average decreases when he/she commits a blunder.
