From First Sight to Friendship: A Longitudinal Social Relations Analysis of Stability and Change in Interpersonal Attraction

Abstract

The present study investigated interpersonal attraction from zero to long-term acquaintance in a real-life context. A social relations approach that distinguishes between perceiver effects (e.g., being a liker), target effects (e.g., being liked), and relationship effects (e.g., unique liking) of interpersonal attraction was applied. Fifty-four psychology freshmen judged each other when they encountered one another for the first time, and again after their first year of study, using large round-robin designs (1,431 dyads). Three main groups of findings were revealed. First, variability increased on all three levels of analysis, demonstrating a higher differentiation at long-term acquaintance. Second, social relations effects at zero acquaintance predicted the respective effects at long-term acquaintance, indicating rank-order stability. Third, reciprocity, assumed reciprocity, and meta-accuracy increased substantially, reflecting higher closeness and intimacy at long-term acquaintance. Results are in line with a dynamic social relations approach to stability and change in interpersonal attraction.

Social interaction processes and personality

“…Similarity and other relational effects: Individual differences in reactivities to specific interaction partners PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL INTERACTION 41 Although a substantial share of variance in interpersonal experiences and behaviors that make up social interaction processes is usually not explained by actor/perceiver or partner/target variances, not much is known about the relational predictors of this substantial "rest". Of course, a large portion of the variance that is found to be independent of main effects of interaction partners is random noise (Ingraham, & Wright, 1986), but there is strong evidence for reliable and stable relationship variance as well (Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2019;Kenny, 1994). Relationship effects (the unique experience or behavior towards a specific interaction partner) directly follow from individual differences in the interpersonal ifthen contingencies previously described.…”

Positivity in peer perceptions over time: Personality explains variation at zero-acquaintance, popularity explains differential change.

“…As a group becomes acquainted, it is likely that people’s initial perceiver effects will predict their perceiver effects later on fairly well. Studies on interpersonal perception in newly acquainted groups with time intervals ranging from several days to several months have reported stability coefficients for perceiver effects between r = .41 and r = .64 (Back et al, 2010; Kenny et al, 1992; Montgomery, 1986; Srivastava et al, 2010). This implies that if Pam formed relatively more positive impressions of others than Nancy initially, this difference would probably still be observed after the group has had a chance to get acquainted.…”

“…Thus, Nancy’s increasingly positive perceiver effect could reflect her reality, which is especially positive social experiences. There is some evidence that over time, groups do come to like specific people more than others, suggesting that popularity is a dynamic social process (Back et al, 2010; Kenny, 2019). There is also evidence that people who tend to be liked, tend to like others (Kenny, 2019).…”

Social Interaction Processes and Personality

“…There is still a lack of larger-scale systematic research on the basic psychometric properties of individual differences in dynamic states (see Wendt et al, 2019 Although a substantial share of variance in interpersonal experiences and behaviors that make up social interaction processes is usually not explained by actor/perceiver or partner/target variances, not much is known about the relational predictors of this substantial "rest". Of course, a large portion of the variance that is found to be independent of main effects of interaction partners is random noise (Ingraham, & Wright, 1986), but there is strong evidence for reliable and stable relationship variance as well (Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2019;Kenny, 1994). Relationship effects (the unique experience or behavior towards a specific interaction partner) directly follow from individual differences in the interpersonal ifthen contingencies previously described.…”