Recently I got acquainted with a man named Barry Allen and I am still shocked because of my predisposition towards his personality. He seems to be the embodiment of an ideal man – he has no bad habits and plenty of hobbies, which he likes to share with his friends. We are on the road to become friends, so I learn something new about him every day.
At first I was confused by my perception of this man, but now I see clearly the reason for it – his actions and expressions seem to be very familiar to me, because my father always acts in the same way. Moreland et.al. (1992) showed me the reasons for such a human perception - effects of exposure on similarity or familiarity were mediated by its effects on attraction, so many factors influence my attitude towards Barry. Something makes me trust him, so I wait for us to become good friends.
Colquitt, Scott, & LePine (2007) write about trust as about a psychological state based on the readiness to accept vulnerability to another individual based on positive expectations of the actions done. The Trustworthiness towards Barry Allen is the characteristic of inspiring trust, so I am in expectation of receiving good response to my hopes. I am eager to know more about him, as he is an interesting person, who has plenty of exciting stories to tell. I am going to provide a little research in order to support my thoughts.
Following Eagly and her colleagues’ article one cannot imagine how much stronger we are under control of our feelings than we may think we are (Eagly et.al., 1991). If continuing communication with those, who went through initial attraction, one may notice some bad character features, such as naïvetés, sternness or brutality, but these qualities are inconspicuous during the first meeting.
One of the main factors in assessing someone is the appearance. The valuation of facial attractiveness is similar through different cultures, ages and sexes (Cunningham et.al., 1995). This way, there is no doubt that the initial attraction consists of both physical and emotional predisposition. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people, who evaluate their new acquainted by means of their position in society and field of occupation. They try to take some advantages of make friends with those people.
References
Colquitt, J. A., Scott B. A., & LePine, J. A. (2007). Trust, Trustworthiness, and trust propensity: A meta-analytic test of their unique relationships with risk taking and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(4), 909-927
Cunningham, M.R., Roberts, A.R., Barbee, A.P., Druen, P.B., Wu, C. (1995). Their ideas of beauty are, on the whole, the same as ours": Consistency and variability in the cross-cultural perception of female physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68:2.
Eagly, A. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., & Longo, L. C. (1991). What is beautiful is good but . . .: A metaanalytic review of research on the physical attractiveness stereotype. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 109-128.
Moreland, Richard L.; Beach, Scott R. (1992). Exposure effects in the classroom: The development of affinity among students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol 28(3), 255-276. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(92)90055-O
