ABSTRACT
Chapter summary
According to attribution theory, we try to understand our own and others’ behaviour by making dispositional or situational attributions.
297Attribution theorists claim we are biased to produce dispositional attributions of other people’s behaviour, whereas we make situational attributions of our own behaviour (fundamental attribution error; actor-observer bias). There is support for a modified version of the actor-observer bias according to which we attribute our own behaviour to our intentions and desires but the behaviour of others to their personality.
According to implicit personality theory, we assume an individual having one particular personality trait will have other related traits. Evidence indicates it is of central importance whether someone is warm or cold and competent or incompetent. Our evaluation of another person depends very much on our assessment of their moral character.
Faces resembling averages in the population are generally perceived as more attractive than non-average ones. However, other factors (e.g., femininity of female faces) are also important.
Physically attractive individuals are perceived as possessing more positive qualities than unattractive ones. There is some validity to these perceptions and more attractive individuals have better physical health than unattractive ones.
We overestimate the similarity of other people’s opinions, behaviour and personality: the false consensus effect.
Attraction within existing relationships is associated more with perceived than actual similarity: attraction makes us perceive the other person as more similar to us than is actually the case.
Married couples on average are similar in physical attractiveness, intelligence, and personal values.
Increased familiarity with another person is generally associated with increased liking and attraction. However, increased familiarity can reduce liking and attraction if the other person undermines our goals.
According to evolutionary psychology, men prefer quantity of mates whereas women prefer quality. This is an exaggerated view of gender differences: men and women both attach considerable importance to kindness, agreeableness, and intelligence in a romantic partner. The evolutionary approach becomes progressively less predictive of partner preference as two people know each other better.
According to evolutionary psychology, gender differences in mate preferences and choices should remain relatively constant over time. In fact, increasing gender equality in most Western cultures has greatly increased gender similarities in mate preferences.
The prediction from evolutionary theory that men should experience more distress from sexual than emotional infidelity but the opposite is the case for women has received only limited support. It is typically found that men and women are both more distressed by emotional than sexual infidelity.
