The relative attractiveness of different types of information about another person

Abstract

Four distinctions are drawn between the epistemological and associated theoretical status of stimuli presented to subjects within the affect-reinforcement and information-processing frameworks for investigating interpersonal attraction. Three types of information about others have been used in studies of attractiveness: external (physical properties, sociological status, etc.); impersonal (evidence about the other's attitudes to events or objects); interpersonal (evidence about the other's characteristic descriptions of or attitudes about other individuals). These three types of information are, in terms of the distinctions made earlier, of crucially different significance and status as informers about the other's cognitive structure and content: hence it is predicted that they have different weights as attractive stimuli. A factorial experiment manipulating the three types of information x two levels of similarity showed that information type interacted significantly (P 0.05) with the similarity manipulation, as predicted. The results are interpreted as indicating the likely processes of inference made by strangers about one another as a means of determining future profitability of further acquaintance.