Interpersonal attraction as a joint function of primacy and recency effects

Abstract

Empirical primacy-recency inconsistencies between Byrne's reinforcement affect model of attraction and Anderson's information integration model of personality impression formation were explored. Thirty-six male and female Ss gave attraction responses to sequences of blocks of similar and dissimilar attitudes arranged in increasing or decreasing proportions of similarity and increasing or decreasing levels of topic importance. Results generally supported the hypothesis that attraction is a joint function of the proportion of similar attitudes within each block (recency) and cumulative proportion of similar attitudes before each response (primacy). This joint occurrence of primacy and recency effects was interpreted in terms of an affect neutralization hypothesis.