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Lecture PowerPoint Slides

By Benjamin Cheung

Cultural Psychology Third Edition

Steven J. Heine

Chapter 11—Interpersonal Attraction and Close Relationships

Chapter Objectives

 In this chapter, you will:

• Discuss the different universal and culturally variable factors that predict attractiveness

• Explain how the propinquity effect enhances perceived attractiveness

• Define the mere exposure effect

• Explain the similarity-attraction effect

• Differentiate between the four elementary forms of relationships

• Discuss how friends and enemies are conceptualized differently across different cultures

Chapter Objectives

 In this chapter, you will:

• Explain how relational mobility and residential mobility affect one’s psychology

• Discuss the social consequences of cultural differences in simpático

• Explain the evolutionary advantages love and romantic love

• Explain how love is conceptualized differently across cultures

• Discuss the different factors that predict whether a culture favors love marriages versus arranged marriages

• Contrast the emotional consequences of love and arranged marriages

Overriding Theme in This Chapter

 Independence/Interdependence and Individualism/Collectivism all have a role in how people view relationships and group work.

Physical Attractiveness

Universals of Physical Attractiveness

 Some aspects of physical attractiveness have been found to be universal:

• Clear complexion

• Bilateral symmetry

• Average features

Universals—Clear Complexion

 People are attracted to healthy mates.

 Skin signals health more directly than any other visible aspect.

 The cosmetics industry provides people with ways to make their complexion look clearer.

 People have strong aversive reactions to skin conditions.

Universals—Bilateral Symmetry

 Another marker of health is bilateral symmetry.

 When an organism develops under ideal conditions its right and left sides will be symmetrical.

 Genetic mutations, pathogens, or stressors in the womb can lead to asymmetrical development.

 On average, asymmetrical faces are viewed as less attractive.

Universals—Average Features

 Faces with averagely proportioned features are more attractive than faces that deviate from average.

 Average features are less likely to contain genetic abnormalities and are more symmetrical.

 We can process any kind of stimulus that is closer to a prototype easier than one that is further from a prototype. • Easy processing is associated with a pleasant feeling

that gets interpreted as attractive.

Universals—Average Features

Which female face and which male face are the most attractive?

Euro-Australian JapaneseEurasian

Female

Male

Cultural Variability— Body Weight

 It is noteworthy that “average is attractive” does not apply to aspects beyond facial features. • This is seen with people’s weight, height,

muscles, breasts, and hips.

• For such aspects, it’s bodies that depart from average that are seen as more attractive.

 The kinds of body weights that are perceived to be most attractive vary considerably across cultures.

Cultural Variability— Body Weight

 In 1951, anthropologists concluded that heavier women were universally found to be more attractive. • E.g. in Western Africa, the term “fat” is often viewed

as complimentary, indicating strength and beauty.

 In many ways, in the West, women who are unusually thin fit the ideal body weight. • These ideals for thinner women have been more

prevalent during the past few decades, while actual average body weights have increased.

Mechanisms of Attraction

 How do people become drawn to each other?

 A couple of mechanisms: • Propinquity effect = a culturally universal mechanism

whereby the more we are exposed to a stimulus, the more we are attracted to it

• Similarity-attraction effect = a nonuniversal mechanism whereby people are attracted to others if they share many similarities

» Not a universal  evidence of cultural variability (particularly strong in cultures with high relational mobility)

Mechanisms of Attraction

Types of Groups/Relationships

 All relationships are based on one or more of the four basic elements of sociality.

• Communal sharing

• Authority ranking

• Equality matching

• Market pricing

Types of Groups/Relationships

 Communal sharing = members of a group emphasize common identity • Everyone treated the same

• Resources pooled for everyone

• No one “deserves” more than others

Types of Groups/Relationships

 Authority ranking = people linearly ordered along hierarchical social dimension • Higher ranking  more privilege & prestige

• Lower ranking  entitled to protection & care from above

Types of Groups/Relationships

 Equality matching = based on balance and reciprocity • Record keeping done to track what is

exchanged

• People take turns to pay back what has been exchanged

• More common in non-Western cultures

Types of Groups/Relationships

 Market pricing = also emphasizes balance and reciprocity • Equal exchange in a market pricing structure

occurs on the same turn

• Based on proportionality and ratio

Types of Groups/Relationships

 All relationships should encompass one or more of these components or structures.

• While these four social structures are universal, there is cultural variability in the extent to which each operates.

• Market pricing is more common in individualistic cultures.

• Equality matching is emphasized more in traditional subsistence societies.

Friends and Enemies

 What do you think about this poem from Ghana?

Beware of friends.

Some are snakes under grass;

Some are lions in sheep’s clothing;

Some are jealousies behind their facades of praises;

Some are just no good;

Beware of friends.

Friends and Enemies

 In one study, 71% of Ghanaians report having enemies compared to 26% of Americans reporting enemies.

 Ghanaians were more likely to say that their enemies were coming from in-groups

 Americans say they don’t have enemies because they avoid people they don’t like.

Friends and Enemies

 High relational mobility  people choose who will be ingroup members  they can opt to avoid people who can be enemies

 Low relational mobility  people aren’t likely to be able to choose ingroups or ingroup members  enemies are likely to emerge from within

Relational Mobility

More friends

More emphasis on attractiveness

More cautious with friends

More obligations associated with friendships

Relational Mobility

 Much research, largely conducted with Westerners, finds that physically attractive people receive many other kinds of benefits—“Tyranny of the Beautiful.”

 Physically attractive Canadian election candidates received three times as many votes as unattractive ones.

 More attractive MBAs earned more money than less attractive MBAs.

 Attractive defendants in misdemeanor cases are assigned lighter sentences than less attractive ones.

 …But are such benefits universal?

Relational Mobility

More friends

More emphasis on attractiveness

More cautious with friends

More obligations associated with friendships

Relational Mobility

More conditional loyalty to college

More likely to view personality to be more central to identity

More unconditional loyalty to local sports teams

More preference for local stores

Simpático

 Friendships also differ based on the ways in which people present themselves.

 Simpático is an example of how a culture has a prescribed presentation of the self in social contexts – a set of traits that people strive to achieve in social interactions.

Romantic Love

 Romantic love is an evolutionary adaptation to ensure that children had adequate resources and protection.

 Romantic love is a universal. • However, the idea of marriages being based

on romantic love is not universal.

• Arranged marriages have been common in many cultures.

Marriage Systems

 Arranged marriages are more common in cultures with extended family systems. • Some have argued that social pressures from

an extended family system keep a relationship together.

Marriage Systems

 Love marriages are more likely in cultures with nuclear family structures. • In the absence of this pressure, love serves

as the glue that maintains a relationship.

Marriage Systems

 Arranged marriages may be puzzling to Westerners because this goes against many Western assumptions about love and marriage. • However, arranged marriages are often quite

successful.

 Studies find that arranged marriages are at least as happy as love marriages (except for women in China and Japan).

Marriage Systems

Summary

 Physical attractiveness has universal aspects, which are primarily limited to the face. • Other aspects of physical attractiveness show cultural

variability.

 How different cultures view the nature of relationships is fundamentally different, depending on whether they have high or low relational mobility.

 Cultures work in groups differently (cooperating, loafing, etc.).