CHAPTER 9: PREJUDICE behavior, not just an attitude, this study shows evidence of
discrimination based on race.
Prejudice comes in many forms — for our own group and
against some other group. Researchers, as we will see, have
explored race, gender, and sexual orientation prejudice but also
prejudices involving:
Religion
Obesity
Age
Immigrants
Politics
Prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, sexism — the
terms often overlap. Let’s clarify them.
Prejudice a preconceived negative judgment of a group and its
individual members.
a combination of feelings, inclinations to act, and beliefs. It can
be remembered as the ABCs of attitudes: affect (feelings),
behavior tendency (inclination to act), and cognition (beliefs). A
prejudiced person may feel dislike toward those different from
him- or herself and behave toward them in a discriminatory
manner, believing them ignorant and dangerous.
Stereotype a belief about the personal attributes of a group of
people. Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralized,
inaccurate, and resistant to new information (and sometimes
accurate).
To stereotype is to generalize. To simplify the world,
we generalize: The British are reserved; Americans are
outgoing. Women love children; men love sports. Professors
are absentminded.
People perceive Australians as having a more free-wheeling
culture than Britons — and they do use more profanity in their
millions of Facebook posts (Kramer & Chung, 2011).
The problem with stereotypes arises when they are inaccurate
or overgeneralized
Overgeneralizing from vivid examples to an entire group is also
a road to inaccuracy.
To presume that Muslims are terrorists, priests are pedophiles,
and evangelicals hate homosexuals overgeneralizes from the
worst examples of each. Stereotypes are important because
when stereotypes are negative, prejudice often follows.
Discrimination
Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members.
Prejudice is a negative attitude; discrimination is negative
behavior.
Someone has to act on their attitude for it to qualify as
discrimination
Bus drivers allowed whites to ride for free 72% of the time —
twice as often as they let Blacks ride for free (36%) (Mujcic &
Frijters, 2020). Since letting someone ride for free is a
attitudes and behavior don’t always predict one another.
Prejudiced attitudes need not breed hostile acts, nor does all
discrimination spring from prejudice.
Much discrimination reflects no intended harm; it’s simply
favoritism toward people like oneself (Greenwald & Pettigrew,
2014).
Job ads for male-dominated vocations feature words associated
with male stereotypes (“We are a dominant engineering firm
seeking individuals who can perform in a competitive
environment”), and job ads for female-dominated vocations
feature the opposite (“We seek people who will be sensitive to
clients’ needs and can develop warm client relationships”).
The result of such ads may be institutional sexism. Without
intending any prejudice, the gendered wording helps sustain
gender inequality
Prejudice: Implicit and Explicit
Prejudice illustrates our dual attitude system
Prejudiced and stereotypic evaluations can occur outside
people’s awareness. Some of these studies briefly flash words
or faces that “prime” (automatically activate) stereotypes for
some racial, gender, or age group. Without their awareness, the
participants’ activated stereotypes may then bias their behavior.
three common forms of prejudice: racial prejudice, gender
prejudice, and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)
prejudice.
Racial Prejudice
Non-Hispanic whites, for example, are one-fifth of the world’s
people and will be one-eighth within another half-century.
IS RACIAL PREJUDICE DISAPPEARING?
“It’s all right for Blacks and whites to date each other,” agreed
48% of Americans in 1987 — but 86% in 2012 (Pew, 2012).
In 1990, 65% of white Americans said they would oppose a
close relative wanting to marry a Black person, but that
shrunk to 13% in 2018 (Smith et al., 2019).
Shall we conclude, then, that racial prejudice is nearing
extinction in countries such as the United States, Britain, and
Canada? Not if we consider the growing share of Americans
who say racial discrimination is a “big problem” — from 28% in
2009 to 51% in 2015 to 76% in June 2020 after the killings of
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery (Martin,
2020).
DISPLAYS OF RACIAL PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION
Most people support racial equality and deplore discrimination.
Yet 3 in 4 people who take the Implicit Association Test display
an automatic, unconscious tendency to associate white, more
than Black, with favorable words (Banaji & Greenwald, 2013).
When both college student or police officer participants were
subliminally exposed to photos of Black men, they were faster
to identify pictures of weapons than participants who had
instead seen photos of white men (Eberhardt et al., 2004)
We can also detect bias in behaviors and thus
discrimination:
Employment discrimination.
Favoritism galore
Interactions with police.
In the UK, 38% of ethnic minorities said they had been wrongly
accused of shoplifting in the past 5 years, compared to only
14% of whites (Booth & Mohdin, 2018).
Patronizing behavior.
When the students thought the writer was Black, they rated it
higher than when they thought the author was white, and they
rarely offered harsh criticisms. The evaluators, perhaps
wanting to avoid the appearance of bias, patronized the Black
essayists with lower standards. Such “inflated praise and
insufficient criticism” may hinder minority student achievement,
Harber noted.
To protect their own self-image as unprejudiced, they bent
over backward to give positive and unchallenging
feedback
THE IMPACT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE
In some situations, automatic, implicit prejudice can have life or
death consequences
In separate experiments, Joshua Correll and his co-workers
(2002, 2007, 2015; Sadler et al., 2012) and Anthony Greenwald
and his co-workers (2003) invited people to press buttons
quickly to “shoot” or “not shoot” men who suddenly appeared
onscreen holding either a gun or a harmless object such as a
flashlight or a bottle. The participants more often misperceived
the object and mistakenly shot harmless targets who were
Black. (Follow-up computerized simulations revealed that it’s
Black male suspects — not females, whether Black or white
— that are more likely to be associated with threat and to
be shot
Other studies have found that when primed with a Black rather
than a white face, people think guns: They more quickly
recognize a gun, and they more often mistake a tool, such as a
wrench, for a gun (Eberhardt et al., 2004; Judd et al., 2004;
Payne, 2001, 2006).
Gender Prejudice
How pervasive is prejudice against women?
gender stereotypes — people’s beliefs about how women and
men do behave.
Norms are prescriptive; stereotypes are descriptive.
In a 2017 Pew survey, 87% of Americans agreed that men
and women are “basically different” in “how they express their
feelings” (Parker et al., 2017).
we noted that the average man and woman do differ somewhat
in social connectedness, empathy, social power,
aggressiveness, and sexual initiative (though not in
intelligence).
Stereotypes (beliefs) are not prejudices (attitudes). Stereotypes
may support prejudice. Yet one might believe, without prejudice,
that men and women are “different yet equal.”
SEXISM: BENEVOLENT AND HOSTILE
Most people like women more than men. They perceive
women as more understanding, kind, and helpful. Eagly
(1994) dubbed this favorable stereotype the women-are-
wonderful effect.
Gender attitudes frequently mix a benevolent sexism (“Women
have a superior moral sensibility”) with hostile sexism.
Moreover, in one 57-nation study, citizens’ hostile sexist
beliefs (“On the whole, men make better political leaders than
women do”) predicted increased gender inequality in the
future (Brandt, 2011).
Both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism declined among
New Zealand adults between 2009 and 2016 (Huang et al.,
2019).
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Are women at an automatic disadvantage when their work is
judged by others?
Women reported widespread sexual harassment in the
workplace, often perpetuated by powerful men protected by
others
A 2018 poll found that 81% of U.S. women had experienced
some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime (as did 43% of
men [Kearl, 2018])
In the non-Western world, gender discrimination is
prominent. Although 86% of Europeans say it “is very
important that women have the same rights as men,” only 48%
of Middle Easterners agree (Zainulbhai, 2016). Women are
two-thirds of the world’s illiterate (UN, 2015).
Around the world, people tend to prefer having baby boys.
In 1941, 38% of expectant parents in the United States said they
preferred a boy if they could have only one child. In 2018, the
answers were virtually unchanged, with 36% still preferring a
boy (28% said they would prefer a girl, and 36% said it didn’t
matter [Newport, 2018]).
This female shortage also contributes to increased violence,
crime, prostitution, and trafficking of women (Brooks, 2012)
LGBTQ Prejudice
In many countries, same-sex relationships are a criminal
offense. But cultures vary — from the 94% in Sweden who say
homosexuality should be accepted by society to the 9% who
agree in Indonesia
In surveys across 23 countries, support of transgender rights
was the lowest in Russia and the highest in Spain (Flores et
al., 2016).
Similarly, heterosexual men who value masculinity express the
most prejudice against transgender individuals (Anderson,
2017).
In Western countries, antigay prejudice, though rapidly
diminishing, endures:
Job discrimination
Support for same-sex relationships is mixed but increasing.
Harassment hurts.
Rejection hurts
Do they increase LGBT people’s risk of ill health and
psychological disorder?
LGBT people experience substantially higher mood disorder
rates, even after controlling for state differences in education
and income.
high rates of gay-lesbian suicide and cardiovascular death
WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL SOURCES OF PREJUDICE?
It may arise from people differing in social status and in their
desire to justify and maintain those differences. It may also be
learned from our parents as they socialize us about what
differences they believe matter between people. Our social
institutions, too, may maintain and support prejudice.
Social Inequalities: Unequal Status and Prejudice
Unequal status breeds prejudice
They found that powerful men who stereotyped their female
subordinates also gave them plenty of praise but fewer
resources, thus undermining their performance and allowing the
men to maintain their power.
social dominance orientation a motivation to have one’s group
dominate other social groups.
Indeed, people high in social dominance orientation often
support policies that maintain hierarchies, such as tax cuts for
the well-off.
Socialization
Prejudice springs from unequal status and from other social
sources, including our acquired values and attitudes
The influence of family socialization appears in children’s
prejudices, which often mirror those perceived in their mothers
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
A personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority
and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status.
Moreover, people on both the left and right express similar
intolerance of groups with values and beliefs unlike their
own
RELIGION AND RACIAL PREJUDICE
In almost every country, leaders invoke religion to sanctify the
present order.
(1) white church members express more racial prejudice than
nonmembers and
(2) those professing fundamentalist beliefs express more
prejudice than those professing progressive beliefs
Knowing the correlation between two variables — religion and
prejudice — tells us little about their causal connection.
Consider three possibilities:
• There may be no causal connection.
• Perhaps prejudice causes religion, by leading some people
to create religious ideas to support their prejudices. People
who feel hatred may use religion, even God, to justify their
contempt for the other.
• Perhaps religion causes prejudice, such as by leading
people to believe that because all individuals possess free
will, impoverished minorities have themselves to blame for
their status and gays and lesbians choose their orientation.
Faithful attenders are less prejudiced
The intrinsically religious are less prejudiced
Clergy are less prejudiced
CONFORMITY
If prejudice is socially accepted, many people will follow the path
of least resistance and conform to the fashion.
They will follow social norms not out of a need to hate but out of
a need to be liked and accepted.
Conformity also maintains gender prejudice.
Systemic Supports
Social institutions (schools, government, media, families) may
bolster prejudice through overt policies such as segregation or
by passively reinforcing the status quo.
Media may also strengthen stereotypes.
As Archer widened his search, he discovered that such “face-
ism” is common.
WHAT ARE THE COGNITIVE SOURCES OF PREJUDICE?
Stereotyped beliefs and prejudiced attitudes exist not only WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF PREJUDICE?
because of socialization and because they displace hostilities
but also as by products of normal thinking processes. Self-Perpetuating Prejudgments
Stereotypes spring less from malice of the heart than from the
Prejudgments guide our attention and our memories.
machinery of the mind
Prejudgments are self-perpetuating.
Categorization: Classifying People into Groups
When a group member violates our expectation, we may
Stereotypes sometimes offer “a beneficial ratio of information
interpret or explain away the behavior as due to special
gained to effort expended” (Sherman et al., 1998).
circumstances.
SPONTANEOUS CATEGORIZATION
subtyping
We find it especially easy and efficient to rely on stereotypes
Accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype
when we are.
by thinking of them as “exceptions to the rule.”
▯ pressed for
subgrouping
▯ preoccupied Accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype
▯ tired or by forming a new stereotype about this subset of the group.

▯ emotionally aroused Discrimination’s Impact: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

outgroup homogeneity effect stereotype threat

perception of outgroup members as more similar to one
another than are ingroup members. Thus “they are alike; we
are diverse.”
In general, the greater our familiarity with a social group, the
more we see its diversity (Brown & Wootton-Millward, 1993;
Linville et al., 1989). The less our familiarity, the more we
stereotype.
A disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype, that
one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. Unlike
self-fulfilling prophecies that hammer one’s reputation into
one’s self-concept, stereotype threat situations have immediate
effects.

own-race bias The tendency for people to more accurately

recognize faces of their own race. (Also called the cross-race
effect or other-race effect.)

Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand Out

Attribution: Is It a Just World?

Explaining away outgroup members’ positive behaviors; also

attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while How does stereotype threat undermine performance? It does
excusing such behavior by one’s own group) so in three ways (Schmader et al., 2008)

-Stress

-Self-monitoring

-Supressing unwanted thoughts and emotions

Do Stereotypes Bias Judgments of Individuals?

THE JUST-WORLD PHENOMENON
First, our stereotypes mostly reflect (though sometimes
The tendency of people to believe that the world is just and that distort) reality.
people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they
Second, people often evaluate individuals more positively
get.
than the individuals’ groups

STRONG STEREOTYPES MATTER

 CHAPTER 10: AGGRESSION
there is nothing so threatening to humanity as humanity
itself.
Even outside of war, human beings have an extraordinary
capacity for harming one another.
A 2019 study across 33 campuses found that 13% of U.S.
women college students had been raped (Cantor et al., 2020).
Worldwide, 30% of women have experienced violence at the
hands of an intimate partner (WHO, 2016).
Less severe aggression is even more common. One study found
that 90% of young couples are verbally aggressive toward each
other, including yelling, screaming, and insults (Munoz-Rivas et
al., 2007).
cyberbullying
Bullying, harassing, or threatening someone using electronic
communication such as texting, online social networks, or
email.
aggression
Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. In
laboratory experiments, this might mean delivering supposed
electric shocks or saying something likely to hurt another’s
feelings.
physical aggression
Hurting someone else’s body.
social aggression
Hurting someone else’s feelings or threatening their
relationships. Sometimes called relational aggression, it
includes cyberbullying and some forms of in-person bullying.
hostile aggression
aggression that springs from anger; its goal is to injure.
instrumental aggression
Aggression that aims to injure, but only as a means to some
other end.
Note:
Most terrorism is instrumental aggression
Terrorism is also a strategic tool used during conflict.
Adolescents who bully others — either verbally or physically —
are often engaged in instrumental aggression because they
often seek to demonstrate their dominance and high status.
Most murders are hostile aggression, with the majority
resulting from intimate partner violence or arguments influenced
by alcohol or drugs (Ertl et al., 2019).
Some murders and many other violent acts of retribution
and sexual coercion, however, are instrumental (Felson,
2000).
WHAT ARE SOME THEORIES OF AGGRESSION?
In analyzing the causes of aggression, social psychologists have
focused on three big ideas: biological influences, frustration,
and learned behavior.
Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon
French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778),
blames society, not human nature, for social evils.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), credits society for restraining the
human brute.
In the twentieth century, the “brutish” view — that aggressive
drive is inborn and thus inevitable — was argued by Sigmund
Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and Konrad Lorenz, an
animal behavior expert
INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTIONARY
PSYCHOLOGY
instinctive behavior
an innate, unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by all members
of a species.
Freud speculated that human aggression springs from a self-
destructive impulse that redirects the energy of a primitive death
urge (the “death instinct”) away from the self and toward others.
Lorenz, an animal behavior expert, instead saw aggression as
adaptive rather than self-destructive.
The two agreed that aggressive energy is instinctive (innate,
unlearned, and universal). If not discharged, aggressive energy
supposedly builds up until it explodes or until an appropriate
stimulus “releases” it, like a mouse releasing a mousetrap.
aggression is sometimes rooted in basic evolutionary
impulses.
Purposeful aggression improved the odds of survival and
reproduction. The losers, noted McAndrew, “ran the risk of
genetic annihilation.”
Mating-related aggression often occurs when males are
competing with other males. In one study, men primed to
think about mating delivered louder and longer bursts of
painful noise against another man who provoked them
(Ainsworth & Maner, 2012).
Men may also become aggressive when their social status
is challenged. “Violence committed against the right people at
the right time was a ticket to social success,” McAndrew
observes.
Status-based aggression also helps explain why aggression is
highest during adolescence and early adulthood, when the
competition for status and mates is the most intense.
NEURAL INFLUENCES
Because aggression is a complex behavior, no one spot in the
brain controls it
However, researchers have found brain neural systems in both
animals and humans that facilitate aggression
When scientists activate these brain areas, hostility
increases; when they deactivate them, hostility decreases.
Docile animals can thus be provoked into rage and raging
animals into submission, usually by stimulating the
hypothalamus (Falkner et al., 2016; Flanigan et al., 2020).
Adrian Raine and his colleagues (1998, 2000, 2008, 2019) used
brain scans to measure brain activity in murderers and to
measure the amount of gray matter in men with antisocial
conduct disorder.
The perception that one is less well off than others with
whom one compares oneself.
Frustration is not only caused by complete deprivation; more
often, frustration arises from the gap between expectations and
attainments.
Aggression as Learned Social Behavior

They found that the prefrontal cortex, which acts like an
emergency brake on deeper brain areas involved in aggressive
behavior, was 14% less active than normal in murderers
(excluding those who had been abused by their parents) and
15% smaller in the antisocial men. Another study found that
more aggressive and violent men had smaller amygdalas
In aggression-prone individuals, poor sleep can lead to violent
and aggressive behavior
In fact, being young, male, or drunk are all better predictors of
being violent than being mentally ill
Albert Bandura (1997) proposed a social learning theory of
aggression. He believes that we learn aggression not only
by experiencing its payoffs but also by observing others.
As with most social behaviors, we acquire aggression by
watching others act and noting the consequences.
Physically aggressive children tend to have had physically
punitive parents, who disciplined them by modeling aggression
with screaming, slapping, and beating (Patterson et al., 1982;
Zubizarreta et al., 2019).

People with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of

violence than be the perpetrators

GENETIC INFLUENCES

Aggressiveness also varies among individual people, and some

of that variation is likely due to genetic influences (Bettencourt
et al., 2006; Denson et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2020).

BIOCHEMICAL INFLUENCES

Blood chemistry also influences aggressive behavior.

ALCOHOL

TESTOSTERONE

POOR DIET

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR INTERACT

Aggression as a Response to Frustration

frustration-aggression theory WHAT ARE SOME INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION?

The theory that frustration triggers a readiness to aggress. Aversive Experiences

frustration Recipes for aggression often include some type of aversive

experience (Groves & Anderson, 2018). These include pain,
The blocking of goal-directed behavior. uncomfortable heat, an attack, or overcrowding.
displacement PAIN
The redirection of aggression to a target other than the source HEAT
of the frustration. Generally, the new target is a safer or more
socially acceptable target. ATTACKS

Arousal

Sexual arousal and other forms of arousal, such as anger, can

therefore amplify one another (Zillmann, 1989)

RELATIVE DEPRIVATION

relative deprivation

Aggression Cues
Even if it’s not touched or used, the mere presence of a gun,
such as on a car’s passenger seat, can lead to aggression.
Leonard Berkowitz (1968, 1981, 1995) and others found that
the sight of a weapon is such a cue.
The weapons effect might be why in the United States, home
to about 300 million privately owned guns, half of all murders
are committed with handguns or why handguns in homes are
far more likely to kill household members than intruders.
“Guns not only permit violence,” Berkowitz reported, “they can
stimulate it as well. The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger
may also be pulling the finger.”
Media Influences
- PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Pornography use is more common among men who are
younger, less religious, and have had more sexual partners than
average.
TV SHOWS, MOVIES, AND ONLINE VIDEOS
The content of TV and videos can be violent. In 2017, violent
videos mimicking popular cartoons for children surfaced on
YouTube Kids; one video featuring children setting each other
on fire was viewed more than 20 million times (Maheshwari,
2017; Orphanides, 2018).
MEDIA-VIEWING EXPERIMENTS
WHY DOES MEDIA VIEWING AFFECT BEHAVIOR?
MEDIA INFLUENCES ON THINKING
DESENSITIZATION
After witnessing thousands of acts of cruelty, there is good
reason to expect a similar emotional numbing.
ALTERED PERCEPTIONS
COGNITIVE PRIMING
VIDEO GAMES
catharsis
Emotional release. The catharsis view of aggression is that the
aggressive drive is reduced when one “releases” aggressive
energy, either by acting aggressively or by fantasizing
aggression.
These studies challenge the catharsis hypothesis: the idea that
violent games allow people to safely express their aggressive
tendencies and “get their anger out”
Group Influences
If frustrations, insults, and aggressive models heighten the
aggressive tendencies of isolated people, such factors are likely
to prompt the same reaction in groups.
As a riot begins, aggressive acts often spread rapidly after the
“trigger” example of one antagonistic person. Seeing looters
freely helping themselves to TV sets, normally law-abiding
bystanders may drop their moral inhibitions and imitate.
HOW CAN AGGRESSION BE REDUCED?
Catharsis?
In New York City, those who want to vent their anger can pay for
the privilege of smashing dishes, laptops, and TVs with a metal
bat at an establishment called the Wrecking Club. Dallas, Texas,
has an Anger Room, and Toronto, Budapest, Singapore,
Australia, and Britain feature Rage Rooms
A Social Learning Approach
If aggressive behavior is learned, then there is hope for its
control.

Culture Change and World Violence

 CHAPTER 11: ATTRACTION AND INTIMACY
Aristotle called humans “the social animal”
need to belong: the desire to connect with others in enduring,
close relationships
need to belong
A motivation to bond with others in relationships that provide
ongoing, positive interactions.
For our ancestors, mutual attachments enabled group survival.
When hunting game or erecting shelter, 10 hands were better
than 2.
Exiled, imprisoned, or in solitary confinement, people ache for
their own people and places. Rejected, we are at risk for
depression (Nolan et al., 2003). Time passes more slowly, and
life seems less meaningful.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE NEED TO BELONG
Humans are, as the saying goes, social animals. We need
to belong. As with other motivations, we pursue belonging
when we don’t have it and seek less when our needs are
fulfilled (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; DeWall et al., 2009,
2011).
When we do belong — when we feel supported by close,
intimate relationships — we tend to be healthier and
happier
When the need to belong is satisfied and balanced with two
other human needs — to feel autonomy and competence —
typical result is a deep sense of well-being (Deci & Ryan,
2002; Milyavskaya et al., 2009; Sheldon & Niemiec, 2006).
Happiness is feeling connected, free, and capable.
Humans in all cultures, whether in schools, workplaces, or
homes, use ostracism to regulate social behavior.
The silent treatment is “emotional abuse” and “a terrible,
terrible weapon to use,”
Ostracism hurts, and the social pain is keenly felt — more
than those who are not ostracized ever know (Nordgren et
al., 2011).
Ostracism may be even worse than bullying. Bullying,
though extremely negative, at least acknowledges
someone’s existence and importance, whereas ostracism
treats a person as if she doesn’t exist at all (Williams & Nida,
2009
Ostracized people show deficits in brain mechanisms that
inhibit unwanted behavior (Otten & Jonas, 2013).
Williams and Steve Nida (2011) were surprised to discover
that even “cyberostracism” by faceless people whom one
will never meet still takes a toll.
Those ostracized by the other players experienced more
negative emotions and became more likely to conform to others’
incorrect judgments.
WHAT LEADS TO FRIENDSHIP AND ATTRACTION?
Proximity
One powerful predictor of whether any two people are friends
is sheer proximity.
Proximity can also breed hostility; most assaults and murders
involve people who live close to each other.
But much more often, proximity prompts liking
Students reported greater friendship with those who
happened to be seated next to or near them during that
first class gathering.
sociologists long ago found that most people marry someone
who lives in the same neighborhood, or works at the same
company or job, or sits in the same class, or visits the same
favorite place.
35% met at work or at school, and some of the rest met when
their paths crossed in their neighborhood, church, or gym, or
while growing up.
INTERACTION
Even more significant than geographic distance is “functional
distance” — how often people’s paths cross.
We become friends with those who use the same entrances,
parking lots, and recreation areas
Randomly assigned college roommates who interact frequently
are far more likely to become good friends than enemies
(Newcomb, 1961)
In one study, strangers liked each other more the longer they
talked (Reis et al., 2011).
So if you’re new in town and want to make friends, try to get an
apartment near the mailboxes, a desk near the coffeepot, a
parking spot near the main buildings, or a room in a dormitory
with shared bathroom facilities
Why does proximity breed liking? One factor is availability;
obviously, there are fewer opportunities to get to know someone
who attends a different school or lives in another town.
ANTICIPATION OF INTERACTION
Proximity enables people to discover commonalities and
exchange rewards.
The phenomenon is adaptive. Anticipatory liking — expecting
that someone will be pleasant and compatible — increases the
chance of forming a rewarding relationship
MERE EXPOSURE
The mere-exposure effect has “enormous adaptive
significance,” noted Zajonc (1998). It is a “hardwired”
phenomenon that predisposes our attractions and attachments.
 Physical Attractiveness ATTACHMENT STYLES

Like it or not, a young woman’s physical attractiveness is a secure attachment

moderately good predictor of how frequently she dates, and a
young man’s attractiveness is a modestly good predictor of how Attachments rooted in trust and marked by intimacy
frequently he dates.
avoidant attachment
Gay men and lesbian women display these sex differences as
Attachments marked by discomfort over, or resistance to, being
well, with gay and straight men both valuing appearance more
close to others. An insecure attachment style.
than lesbian or straight women do (Ha et al., 2012).
anxious attachment
In a 2012 survey, 43% of women and 33% of men said they had
fallen in love with someone they were not initially attracted to Attachments marked by anxiety or ambivalence. An insecure
attachment style.
matching phenomenon

The tendency for men and women to choose as partners those

who are a “good match” in attractiveness and other traits.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Passionate Love

A state of intense longing for union with another. Passionate

lovers are absorbed in each other, feel ecstatic at attaining their
partner’s love, and are disconsolate on losing it.

Passionate love is emotional, exciting, intense. Elaine Hatfield

(1988) defined it as “a state of intense longing for union with
another”

companionate love

The affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply
intertwined