What is it about?
An quantitative analysis of 54 laboratory studies revealed that the experience of attraction covaries with the expression of a subset of behaviors, specifically, eye contact, smiling, laughter, mimicry, proximity maintenance, among other behaviors.
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Why is it important?
The behavior associated with attraction are those behaviors associated with developing trust and rapport. Smiling, eye contact, and laughing are linked with trust-development and each is associated with liking. When we like someone, we act in ways to get them to trust us. From this perspective, the expression of these nonverbals is functional, we do so to produce liking and trust in the other person.
Perspectives
I have conducted research on attraction for 15 years and these findings completely changed my view of what attraction is. Before this paper, attraction was viewed as a "feeling" that resulted from being exposed to someone we 'liked.' After this paper, attraction can be viewed as an instrumental interpersonal response that regulates the degree of interdependence in interpersonal relationships.
Matthew Montoya
University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A meta-analytic investigation of the relation between interpersonal attraction and enacted behavior., Psychological Bulletin, July 2018, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/bul0000148.
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