What Are The Three Main Principles That Apply To Initial Attraction

There are three main principles that apply to initial attraction: similarity, reciprocity, and beauty

(physical attractiveness) (Luo, 2009). The first principle, similarity, is when individuals are attracted to another person because they have similar characteristics. Being attracted to someone who has similar qualities is common amongst people who generally like themselves. If you have certain characteristics about yourself that you admire, you will most likely look for those qualities in a potential mate. If you like yourself, you will want to find someone else who has similar qualities.

Similar individuals have the potential of forming a balanced system, which is comforting and familiar (Luo, 2009). Similar attitudes create positive feelings,

If a stranger has a similar attitude to us, then there is a better chance that the stranger will be attracted to us as well. We draw conclusions when we first meet someone and infer the stranger’s overall quality (Singh, 2008). Similarity is a common factor of interpersonal attraction along with the idea that you are attracted to people who like you, otherwise known as, reciprocity.

Reciprocity is when you know of someone who likes you, which causes you to be more attracted to that person. People like others who like them (Luo, 2009). Knowing that someone is interested in you, can potentially lead you to become more interested as well. In a study done by two social psychologists, participants in their experiment were given feedback from strangers about whether or not the participants had a similar attitude to the stranger and if the stranger liked or disliked them

(Lehr, 2006). Those who were given negative feedback from strangers ranked these strangers low ontheir likeability scale (Lehr, 2006). The judgements from strangers given to the participants in the experiment affected whether or not the participants found the strangers likeable or not. One factor that this experiment did not focus on was the idea that physical attractiveness could affect how

Physical attractiveness and beauty is more of a predictor for men than it is for women when it comes to mate selection (Norman, 2013). Women, on the other hand, place more importance on “social status.” Either way, when a man or a woman is attracted to another person, research has shown that physical appearance affects their overall opinion and perception of that person.

The halo effect is when people attribute other positive factors to someone who is physically attractive. When interested in someone, people tend to rate that person highly not only on their appearance, but on other traits as well due to one observable trait (Norman, 2013). According to the halo effect, “a person’s favorability of personality attributions increases monotonically with physical attractiveness” (Lucker, 1981). Many other aspects of personality are rated based upon physical attractiveness and according to a study, a woman’s femininity, sexiness, and happiness is strongly related to her physical attractiveness (Lucker, 1981). If you find someone attractive, you are most likely going to hope that they have a personality that matches their appearance. Therefore, we contribute