formation of relationships

P's evaluated creative task by an experimenter.and then asked to rate how much like experimenter..Rating was highest if experimenter positively evaluated the p's performance on the task.= reward.

Indirect Reinforcement /conditioning - through association  

Onlookers witnessed evaluation from 1,also more liked by p's when the onlooker witnessed positive evaluatio of p's cf to negative one. likeablity same as experimenter in 1.

Evidence supports claim that attraction may be influenced through association with a pleasant event, and this makes the formation of a relationship more likely.

He suggested dissimilarity is more important than similarity in determining whether a relationship will develop.

cohort

24 males/32 females students small study

p's given description of stranger, varying degrees of similarity to student and information that stranger either liked or disliked student.

dependent variables measures of

liking for stranger

likelihood of dating

correlation between similarity/liking  person as a potential partner

correlation similarity/likelihood of dating

 A possible reason as to why similarity is important is because we assume that people who are similar to us will be more likely to like us, reducing the chance of rejection. It is also important that people share our attitudes and beliefs because it tends to validate them, which is rewarding. This reward, according to the reward/need satisfaction theory, will increase our attraction to them.
Studied 24 male and female students, aiming to test the importance of attitude similarity and reciprocol attraction in liking. First had to answer a questionaire about their attitudes and behaviour, then were given specific descriptions of epople similar or dissimilar to them, and were asked to rate them out of 10. Inserted into them was a statement whether the person liked or disliked the participant. Found that participants rated the highest to similar people in terms of attitudes and liking.