Interpersonal attraction
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Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between people which leads to friendships and romantic relationships. The study of interpersonal attraction is a major area of study in social psychology.
Many factors leading to interpersonal attraction have been studied. The most frequently studied are propinquity, similarity, familiarity, reciprocal liking, reward/reinforcement, and physical attractiveness.
The matching hypothesis is a theory that states that interpersonal attraction is more likely when the other person's physical attractiveness is similar to our perception of our own physical attractiveness. However the equity theory suggests that physical attractiveness is one reward in a relationship but there are many different rewards and costs that we weigh up. According to the equity theory, a relationship continues if the rewards are greater than the costs, however many people argue that this is not the case mainly because of the emotions involved.
The evolutionary explanation of interpersonal attraction is that interpersonal attraction is more likely is when someone has physical features which indicate that they are very fertile. According to this theory, the only purpose of relationships is reproduction and so we 'invest' in someone who appears very fertile to increase the chance of our genes being passed down to the next generation. This theory has been criticised because it does not explain relationships between people who do not want children or homosexual couples.
See also
External links
- [The Ladder Theory], an explanation of how women are attracted to men in romantic and non-romantic ways.
- [Dating with Women] - A process flow of attracting women during a date.
- [A WikiNotes article on 'Attraction and the formation of relationships' including a section on interpersonal relationships]
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