When the grass on the other side of the fence doesn't matter: Reciprocal romantic interest neutralizes attentional bias towards attractive alternatives

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 186-191

  Koranyi, Nicolas ^a   Rothermund, Klaus ^a  

^a FRIEDRICH SCHILLER UNIVERSITY JENA   (Germany)

Author keywords

Attractiveness bias; Dating; Implicit self regulation; Relationship initiation

Indexed keywords

EID: 82655173972     PISSN: 00221031     EISSN: 10960465     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.06.012     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Aharon I., Etcoff N., Ariely D., Chabris C.F., O'Conner E., Breiter H.C. Beautiful faces have variable reward value: fMRI and behavioral evidence. Neuron 2001, 32:537-551.
2. Aron A., Dutton D.G., Aron E.N., Iverson A. Experiences of falling in love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 1989, 6:243-257.
3. Backman C.W., Secord P.F. The effect of perceived liking on interpersonal attraction. Human Relations 1959, 12:379-384.
4. Berscheid E., Graziano W., Monson T., Dermer M. Outcome dependency: Attention, attribution, and attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1976, 34:978-989.
5. Bredow C.A., Cate R.M., Huston T.L., Sprecher S., Wenzel A., Harvey J. Have we met before? A conceptual model of first romantic encounters. Handbook of relationship initiation 2008, 3-28. Psychology Press, New York. S. Sprecher, A. Wenzel, J. Harvey (Eds.).
6. Brosch T., Sander D., Pourtois G., Scherer K.R. Beyond fear: Rapid spatial orienting toward positive emotional stimuli. Psychological Science 2008, 19:362-370.
7. Brosch T., Sander D., Scherer K.R. That baby caught my eye... Attention capture by infant faces. Emotion 2007, 7:685-689.
8. Curtis R.C., Miller K. Believing another likes or dislikes you: Behaviors making the beliefs come true. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986, 51:284-290.
9. Davis M.S. Intimate relations 1973, Free Press, New York, NY US.
10. Douglas W. Affinity-testing in initial interactions. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 1987, 4:3-15.
11. Ebner N.C., Riediger M., Lindenberger U. FACES - A database of facial expressions in young, middle-aged, and older women and men: Development and validation. Behavior Research Methods 2010, 42:351-362.
12. Emmons R.A. The psychology of ultimate concerns: Motivation and spirituality in personality 1999, Guilford Press, New York.
13. Ferguson M.J., Bargh J.A. Liking is for doing: The effects of goal pursuit on automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2004, 87:557-572.
14. Fishbach A., Zhang Y., Trope Y. Counteractive evaluation: Asymmetric shifts in the implicit value of conflicting motivations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2010, 46:29-38.
15. Fletcher G.J.O., Kerr P.S.G. Through the eyes of love: Reality and illusion in intimate relationships. Psychological Bulletin 2010, 136:627-658.
16. Gollwitzer P.M. Action phases and mind-sets. (pp 1990, 2:53-92. Guilford Press, New York. E.T. Higgins, R.M. Sorrentino (Eds.).
17. Gollwitzer P.M. The volitional benefits of planning. The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior 1996, 287-312. Guilford Press, New York. P.M. Gollwitzer, J.A. Bargh (Eds.).
18. Gollwitzer P.M., Heckhausen H., Steller B. Deliberative and implemental mind-sets: Cognitive tuning toward congruous thoughts and information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1990, 59:1119-1127.
19. Heckhausen H., Gollwitzer P.M. Thought contents and cognitive functioning in motivational versus volitional states of mind. Motivation and Emotion 1987, 11:101-120.
20. Hofmann W., Friese M., Gschwendner T. Men on the pull: Automatic approach-avoidance tendencies and sexual interest behavior. Social Psychology 2009, 40:73-78.
21. Karremans J.C., Verwijmeren T. Mimicking attractive opposite-sex others: The role of romantic relationship status. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2008, 34:939-950.
22. Knobloch L.K., Miller L.E., Sprecher S., Wenzel A., Harvey J. Uncertainty and relationship initiation. Handbook of relationship initiation 2008, 121-134. Psychology Press, New York. S. Sprecher, A. Wenzel, J. Harvey (Eds.).
23. Kranz F., Ishai A. Face perception is modulated by sexual preference. Current Biology 2006, 16:63-68.
24. Maner J.K., Gailliot M.T., Miller S.L. The implicit cognition of relationship maintenance: Inattention to attractive alternatives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2009, 45:174-179.
25. Maner J.K., Kenrick D.T., Becker D.V., Delton A.W., Hofer B., Wilbur C.J., et al. Sexually selective cognition: Beauty captures the mind of the beholder. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, 85:1107-1120.
26. Maner J.K., Rouby D.A., Gonzaga G.C. Automatic inattention to attractive alternatives: The evolved psychology of relationship maintenance. Evolution and Human Behavior 2008, 29:343-349.
27. Miller R.S. Inattentive and contented: Relationship commitment and attention to alternatives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1997, 73:758-766.
28. Olson I.R., Marshuetz C. Facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance. Emotion 2005, 5:498-502.
29. Rothermund K. Automatic vigilance for task-related information: Perseverance after failure and inhibition after success. Memory and Cognition 2003, 31:343-352.
30. Schupp H.T., Cuthbert B.N., Bradley M.M., Hilman C.H., Hamm A.O., Lang P.J. Brain processes in emotional perception: Motivated attention. Cognition & Emotion 2004, 18:593-611.
31. Schupp H.T., Stockburger J., Codispoti M., Junghöfer M., Weike A.I., Hamm A.O. Selective visual attention to emotion. The Journal of Neuroscience 2007, 27:1082-1089.
32. Shah J.Y., Friedman R., Kruglanski A.W. Forgetting all else: On the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2002, 83:1261-1280.
33. Shanteau J., Nagy G.F. Probability of acceptance in dating choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1979, 37:522-533.
34. Snyder M., Tanke E.D., Berscheid E. Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1977, 35:656-666.
35. Sprecher S., Aron A., Hatfield E., Cortese A., Potapova E., Levitskaya A. Love: American style, Russian style and Japanese style. Personal Relationships 1994, 1:349-369.
36. Sui J., Liu C.H. Can beauty be ignored? Effects of facial attractiveness on covert attention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2009, 16:276-281.
37. Tukey J.W. Exploratory data analysis 1977, Addision-Wesley, Reading, MA.
38. Wentura D., Rothermund K., Bak P. Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000, 78:1024-1037.