1. Psychology 137C: Intimate Relationships Week 3, Lecture 2: Attraction
Reminders:
Seriously, start thinking about your paper, due May 19th. Writing it the night before is no fun.

2. Three Questions Why do we like other people?
Why are we romantically attracted to other people?
How do we form intimate relationships with other people?

3. The Reward Theory of Liking
We like people who are likely to reward us.
Ability to reward us:
Proximity/familiarity
Personality/pratfall effect
Similarity/phantom other technique
Motivation to reward us:
Reciprocity
The importance of discrimination

4. From Like to “Really Like”
What’s the first and easiest thing you can notice about a potential partner?
How much does physical attractiveness matter?
The computer dating studies
The matching hypothesis
Why is physical attractiveness so powerful?

5. Reward Theory Revisited
Are we ever attracted to people who don’t reward us?
Why does this ever happen?

6. From Attraction to Relationship
Do our preferences predict our mating behavior?
The Speed Dating Study
The Twin Study
Why is starting a relationship different from choosing furniture?

7. The Dance of Mate Selection
Signaling proceptivity
Behavioral interdependence
Disclosure reciprocity
The dance is highly sensitive to context!
Dutton and Aron (1974)

8. Final Thoughts Is attraction like chemistry, or like the weather?
Does knowing how relationships start help us to understand how they succeed and fail over time?