Interpersonal attraction as a joint function of primacy and recency effects
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, Indiana.
Memory & Cognition
|November 9, 2013
Summary
Attraction is influenced by both recent and cumulative attitude similarity. This study reconciled models of interpersonal attraction and impression formation, suggesting an affect neutralization process.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Attitude Formation
- Impression Formation
Background:
- Inconsistencies exist between models explaining interpersonal attraction and personality impression formation.
- Byrne's reinforcement affect model and Anderson's information integration model offer differing perspectives on how similarity influences perceptions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically investigate primacy-recency effects in attraction.
- To reconcile conflicting predictions from attraction and impression formation models.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-six participants evaluated attitude sequences with varying similarity proportions and topic importance.
- Attraction responses were recorded for stimuli presented in increasing or decreasing orders.
Main Results:
- Attraction was significantly predicted by both the similarity within the most recent block (recency) and the cumulative similarity encountered previously (primacy).
- Results supported a combined primacy-recency effect, challenging purely recency-based attraction models.
Conclusions:
- Interpersonal attraction is a complex process influenced by both immediate and cumulative attitude similarity.
- An affect neutralization hypothesis may explain the joint occurrence of primacy and recency effects in attraction.
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