Background of the Topic
The subject of social attraction is of great relevance especially in the modern world characterized with diverse social habit. Psychologists have identified significant relationships between Age and state of loneliness and social attraction. Scholars have explored the idea of loneliness comprehensively in literature and philosophy theology; however, there is little scientific knowledge regarding this idea. Psychologist identifies loneliness as universal, though it is complex and unique depending on individuals. In this context, no single attribute can be linked with a state of loneliness. This means that loneliness is caused by various factors and individuals feel lonely because of various reasons. Loneliness is state of mind caused by being solo leading to one feeling empty or rejected. Lonely people face the urge of deserving for human contact, but because of their state of mind the connection fails to work causing them to feel rejected (Cherry, n.d.). In view of the position that studies on social stigma of loneliness highlight that lonely people are essentially taken negatively and avoided by others, this study focuses on age and the state of loneliness with the aim of describing two major causes of social attraction.
Literature Review
Various scholars have examined the concept of loneliness in diverse contexts and viewpoints. Initially, Lau and Gruen conducted a study in which they tested the assumption that lonely people are socially stigmatized. Their purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent of the stigmatization of loneliness and how it is affected by the sex of the lonely person and of the perceiver. The experiment assumes a design 2 (Loneliness: Lonely or nonlonely) x 2 (Sex of Target Person: male or female) x 2 (Sex of Perceiver: male or female) between-subjects. In this experiment, they studied the evaluation of a lonely person on measures of important psychological attributes as well as measures of interpersonal attraction. The attribute measure was based on the self-perception scales developed by Monge (1973). The interpersonal attraction of the target person was measured with the questions “How much do you think you would like this person?” and “Would you want this person to be your friend?” They found that loneliness is a stigmatized state. The extent of the stigma tends to range from personal deficiency to dislikeableness. In comparison with non-lonely people, lonely people are perceived as less psychologically adjusted, less achieving and intellectually competent, and less socially competent in relating to others. They are less liked and less preferred as friends by others. In all, observers denigrate the personal adequacy and interpersonal attractiveness of lonely people (Lau & Gruen, 1992).
Borys and Perlman also conducted a strategic study provides important insights regarding the idea of loneliness and social attraction. Borys and Perlman tested the perception of lonely persons by others in the context of an evaluation of sex differences in loneliness. Based on a review of data from previous studies, the researchers concluded that men were more lonely than women on the UCLA Loneliness Scale, but men were less lonely than women on self-labeling measures of loneliness. Borys and Perlman argued that men experienced greater loneliness than women did, but were less likely to admit being lonely because there were strong negative social norms regarding loneliness in males. By admitting they were lonely, men would risk incurring negative social consequences. This hypothesis is highly consistent with a ‘social stigma’ view of loneliness. In essence, loneliness is a social category that is discredited, particularly for men and one that they would wish to conceal in order to avoid social rejection (Crocker & Major, 1989). In order to investigate this hypothesis, Borys and Perlman (1985) required university students to judge on eight scales a prototypical lonely person who was identified as a male or a female. Consistent with the hypothesis, the individuals rejected the lonely person more when male than when female. In addition, women were more rejecting for being lonely than men. This latter finding are in consistent with Borys and Perlman (1985) tendency that identified men to be conventionally less socially sensitive than women and therefore less aware of a person’s loneliness and less rejecting of a lonely person. Some issues concerning Borys and Perlman’s (1985) study served as an impetus for the present investigation. Firstly, the students in the study were required to judge a single person, and without some comparison. In this context, it is possible that their responses reveal only the students’ general judgment style. In order to determine whether and if so by how much, individuals rejected the person because of loneliness; it is necessary to assess the judgments of persons varying in loneliness.
Rationale/Synthesis
In respect to Lau & Gruen (1992) study, it seems clear that the loneliness carries a significant social stigma. This is because lack of friendship and social ties are socially undesirable. Furthermore, the lonely people mainly have unwelcoming social attitudes towards others. Lonely people often have very negative self-perceptions, and the inability to establish social ties suggest that the person may have personal inadequacies or socially undesirable attributes (Lau & Gruen, 1992). In essence, a state of loneliness result to stigma since lonely people are isolated or withdrawn from the society as other people feels uncomfortable associating with them. The findings identified by Lau and Gruen (1992) study that indicate that lonely people are disliked imply that lonely people mainly present as outcasts in the society. This heightens the levels of loneliness experienced by these people, which result to serious social consequences.
Furthermore, the present study, account for the concepts raised in the Borys & Perlman, (1985) study by assessing individuals’ rejection of a lonely and non-lonely person who was male or female. According to the hypotheses, individuals should present high tendency of rejecting a lonely person than a non-lonely person, particularly when judging a male rather than a female. Second, researchers have not assessed whether there are individual differences in the attributions to or acceptance of a lonely person. One purpose of the current study is to evaluate whether differences in loneliness served this function. The existing research indicates that lonely individuals hold more negative perceptions of others’ intentions and actions, than non-lonely individuals (Hanley-Dunn et al., 1985). Consequently, lonely individuals may have attributions that are more negative and be less accepting of lonely or non-lonely persons than would non-lonely individuals (Borys & Perlman, 1985).
In another study, Lau and Kong (1999) explored the idea of loneliness linking it with the states such as depression, anxiety and interpersonal hostility. In this study, Lau and Kong identified that if unsettled, a feeling on loneliness especially the one experienced at the adolescence stage can present a serious obstacle in the establishment of the normative social relationships by prompting the development of social avoidance and anxiety. It is worthwhile noting that this study identify “adolescent feeling” as a unique aspect. In this context, it is apparent that from a deductive point of view Age factor is of great significance when investigating the effect of loneliness. Besides, previous psychological studies including the ones reviewed in this paper failed to account for the Age factor in their evaluations. It is in this consideration that this study aims at including the variable of the Age factor to evaluate whether inclusion of this element would result to different findings. Furthermore, this study takes account of the sentiments raised by Lau and Kong (1999), as they recommended for the need of conducting further studies to compare the reactions of people with high levels of loneliness and people with low levels of loneliness toward lonely and no lonely target people.
Hypothesis
Studies on the social stigma of loneliness have shown that lonely people are evaluated negatively and avoided by others (Borys & Perlman, 1985). The apparent relationship between loneliness and adjustment difficulties affirms the relevant role of loneliness in social attraction. Furthermore, the reviewed studies assert that the relationship between loneliness and adjustment challenges have an indirect effect on social connectedness. This highlights the importance of conducting a study that could develop knowledge of how lonely people react to other lonely people. Consequently, in this study, the reactions of lonely people upon other lonely people and the relationship between self-attitudes and loneliness were examined. The experiment was a 2 (loneliness of target person: lonely vs. nonlonely) x (gender of target person) x 2 (loneliness of perceiver: lonely vs. nonlonely) between-subjects design.
Furthermore, the three studies reviewed have examined the effect of the target persons’ loneliness status and target person’ gender on perceiver’s social stigmatizations of lonely people (Borys & Perlman, 1985; Lau & Gruen, 1992; Lau & Kong, 1999). However, the age of the target person was not controlled or included in these earlier studies. Considering the significant effect of Age factor in course of person’s social development, it is apparent that these studies excluded an important aspect capable of affecting the evaluation’s findings. Accordingly, this study targeted correcting this omission by assuming a study design in which age of the participants was controlled.
This study assumed a hypothesis that the younger adults will be perceived to be more attractive compared to the older ones. This bases the argument on the fact that people lose most of their attractive physical attributes as they age with time. From in critical point of view, this hypothesis is particularly informed by the perspective that young adults or adolescents present highly dynamic social develop states that entirely define their profile at their old age. In other words, Adolescent age is the age that precedes the stabilization stage. Individuals at this stage are attempting to establishing their social position on the society which means that situations that they are subjected to at this age have high potential of defining their future states. This is in coherent with the Lau & Kong (1999) sentiments that a feeling of loneliness at adolescence age obstructs the process of establishing normative social relationships.
However, the first hypothesis presented above failed to account for the fact that there are instances where age fails mainly to define the development of one’s social state. This is essentially the case where people fail lose their attraction until when they are very old. The main effects of this hypothesis was felt when the two variables were combined. This prompted the need of formulation of the second hypothesis that assumes that the attractiveness rates were significantly higher for the people who were not lonely and that for the people who were lonely, ought to be less attractive when compared with their non-lonely counterparts. This was based on the fact that the people who were not lonely were seen to be happy and contented with the situations as they were. This made them relaxed portrayed their attractiveness. On the other hand, the lonely people appeared disturbed and seemed unhappy with their position in the social life. This combination of moods and dull attributes was what was attributed to be making them look un-attractive. Essentially, they live a miserable life since they feel isolated from the mainstream society and develop a negative attitude towards others. The reviewed studies provide evidence to this assertion since lonely people were identified to evaluate their partners more negatively than less lonely people (Lau & Gruen, 1992). The implication of this assertion is that although lonely and less people attract with their partners in a similar manner, lonely individuals have worse relationship since they present more negative self-perceptions than less lonely individuals. It is apparent that this self-perception characterizing the lonely people has the ability of making them fail to reveal to others about their loneliness. In consequence, unwillingness to self-disclose obstructs their chances of receiving social support, which would result to a state of creation of a vicious circle. The implication of (Borys & Perlman, 1985; Lau & Gruen, 1992; Lau & Kong, 1999) studies becomes also relevance when one considers the argument raised by the social presence theory. This theory highlights that the lesser channels the less interest to the presence of other social actors in an interaction. Essentially, the society ignorantly forgets the lonely people when they isolate themselves from others, which results to a more severe state.
In this context, the combination of the two attributed was hypothesized that the effect on attractiveness ratings to older adults was greater than the effect on the younger adults meaning that the gap between lonely and non-lonely adults attractiveness ratings are greater for the older adults than for the younger adults. The combination of these variables was seen to create more effect on the difference between attractiveness ratings that when each attribute was evaluated alone. The effects were high since the combination created more reasons to enlarge the gap that is seen when the attractiveness ratio is evaluated. The single effects of the attributes were combined and this was like summing up the individual differences of the two variables that were used in the research. The gap between the attractiveness ratios was now more visible when different variables were combined.
Method
Participants
The 14 participants in the experiment were undergraduate college students who were enrolled in Research Method in Psychology courseat University of California, Los Angeles. They were compensated for their participation in the form of course credit. There wasa total of three males and 11 females. Participants’ ages ranged from 19 to 25. None of the participants reported blindness.
Design
In our 2 x 2 within-subjects factorial design, we manipulated two variables, age and loneliness state, each with two levels. The first independent variable, the age, was composed of two levels, which were young adult men (considered to be individuals with ages ranging from 18-24) and adult men (considered to be individuals with ages ranging from 30-36). The second independent variable, loneliness state, had two levels. These were lonely men and not lonely men. We defined loneliness in relation to a number of personal characteristics, including low self-esteem, shyness, feelings of alienation, external locus of control, and belief that the world is not a just place. The state of not being lonely was defined by the opposite of those characteristics (Jones, Freemon, & Goswick, in press).
Our dependent variable, which was attractiveness perception, was recorded by the participants’ perceptions of attraction to the characters in each condition according to the Likert scale. The scale is measured in intervals from one to seven. The perception of attractiveness is quantified by the Interpersonal Attraction Scale. Higher ratings on this scale reflect both increased communication and interpersonal influence (McCroskey & McCain, 1974).
Materials
We defined lonely individuals and not lonely individuals by using the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1980). We described the lonely man in the scenario as an individual with lack of companionship: he has no one he can turn to, is no longer close to anyone, does not share his interests and ideas with those around him, feels left out, has superficial social relationships, is not well known, feels isolated from others, is unhappy being so withdrawn, and had people around him but not with him. We described the not lonely man in the scenario as an individual who felt in tune with the people around him, did not feel alone, felt as part of a group of friends, had a lot in common with the people around him, was an outgoing person, felt he had close relationship with people, could find companionship when he wanted it, felt people were really understanding him, had people who he could talk to, and had people who he could turn to. (Russell et al., 1980)
In the package, there were total of 10 questions in each page followed by the scenario. The even numbered questions on each of six sheets were asked as decoy questions. The odd numbered questions on each of six sheets were the Interpersonal Attraction Scale (McCroskey & McCain, 1974). The descriptions of the odd questions were the same. They stated, “Using the Likert scale below, with one being strongly disagree and seven being strongly agree, circle the number to indicate your feeling.” The first questions’ statements were, “I think this character could be a friend of mine.” The third questions’ statements were, “It would be difficult to meet and talk with this character.” The fifth questions’ statements were, “This character just wouldn’t fit into my circle of friends.” The seventh questions’ statements were, “We could never establish a personal friendship with each other.” The ninth questions’ statements were, “I would like to have a friendly chat with this character.” Other materials used in the experiment included one room in which the experiment was conducted, 14 pens, and a stopwatch (accurate to the 0.01).
Procedures
The six scenarios with 10 questions each were stapled together and faced down along with pens for writing. To prevent confounding variables, the 16 scenarios packages were assigned to 14 participants randomly. Then, we explained to the participants that they would see scenario on each paper and would be given 15 minutes to answer all questions. Also, we explained that they could not go back to the previous page as they answered the questions. We started the experiments by measuring the time, and waited until everyone had finished the experiment. In order to control for demand characteristics, each participant read one neutral description of a young adult man and one neutral description of an adult man. Half of the participants read the younger neutral male story immediately following the first condition of the experiment, and the older male neutral story immediately following the third experimental condition. The other half of the participants first read the older male neutral story immediately following the first condition, and the younger male neutral story immediately following the third condition. After 15 minutes, we told them to stop and collected all questionnaires.
