Relationships with the people around us are very important to our social existence. The words “like” and “dislike,” “love” and “hate” are among the most frequently used word in the English language. Everyone knows the meaning of these terms. Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between two People which leads to friendships, love or romantic relationships. Interpersonal attraction is related to our like, love, dislike, or hates someone. It is like a force that acting between two people that draw them together and resist their separation.
In our society we can observed that peoples either get attracted towards each other or do not get attracted. But why we are attracted to a particular person. What is the DETERMINANTS of attraction?
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There are some determinants of interpersonal attraction
Similarity
Generally we like the persons who are more similar to us. Similarity can be of physical appearance, interpersonal style, personality, social and cultural Background, values, beliefs, interests and activities preferences, attitudes and communication And social skills and many more things. Generally peoples with shared backgrounds, attitudes, academic Achievements, values, and political views became friends.
Proximity
Proximity means physical closeness. It refers to repeated exposure effect. Proximity has a strong influence on one’s romantic relationship and friendship choices. Interpersonal attraction increases as a result of proximity. For example; students develop stronger friendships with those students who share their classes, or who sit near them. Or people working in same office leads to attraction.
Thus the more and more you see and interact with a person, the more likely he or she is to become your intimate partner or friend.
Affect
Affect is our emotional state, positive and negative feelings and moods. Our Emotional state influences our emotion and cognition as well as the Interpersonal attraction. Our positive affect will lead to positive evaluation of other people and our negative affect will lead to negative evaluation of other person. For example; when we are in positive state we will evaluate a person positively, even though he or she is a stranger and will evaluate negatively in a negative state.
Have you observed smile of your boss or your teacher leads to a positive evaluation in a first interaction. Why? Because it distracts the discomfort of the situation and help us to feel comfortable in the first interaction.
Similarly the hero of the movies are depict helpful, humorous, good natured so that it arouses a positive emotional state in peoples.
Personality
Interpersonal attraction are also influenced by the personality of individual. People who want romantic partner’s agreeableness, extrovert, conscientiousness, emotional stable, openness to experience.
Attitudes
The more similar our attitudes associated with any person, the more likely we will attracted toward any person. With more similar attitudes as ours was more Agreeable with our perception of things and more reinforcing she/he was, so the More we like him/her. Researchers found that difference in interests and’ attitudes can lead to like and dislike, love and hate.
Physical Attractiveness
It is found that people respond positively to a person who is physically attractive and negatively to the person who is physically unattractive. Generally When we see an attractive person, we believe that a physically attractive person will be social, kind, helpful, intelligent, outgoing and have a high self-esteem and a physically unattractive person will be asocial.
These are the some factors that play a important role in interpersonal attraction. In conclusion we can say that we are attracted toward other individual who are physically Attractive, similar to us and socially available; and similar in terms of Purposes, , beliefs, needs and backgrounds.
Always remember; these factors are not the only factor that affects the building of a strong and healthy relationship and friendship. A good and long lasting relationship always requires effective communication and the ability to adapt to one another
If you have any query, suggestion, view or advice you can ask through comment
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Nice article 🙂