Supports the prediction that the influence of a female protagonist's appearance on children's perceptions would decrease with age, whereas the influence of her behavior would increase. (NH)

Two studies, one with two- to three-month-olds and one with six- to eight-month-olds, examined infant preferences for attractive faces. A visual preference technique was used. Infants were shown slides of faces of adult women previously rated for attractiveness. When shown pairs of attractive and unattractive faces, older and younger infants…

Little is known about the implications of individual differences in privacy preferences. To explore the relationship between privacy preferences and the style and quality of social interaction in a first encounter, 77 of 320 college students completing the Privacy Preference Scale were grouped according to their low (20 male, 20 female) or high…

Providing a framework for a symposium exploring the influence of physical attractiveness on the socialization process, this paper (1) offers a working definition of physical attractiveness, (2) reviews stereotypes associated with attractiveness, and (3) discusses a social network perspective on the influence of attractiveness. Physical…

Despite recent emphasis on the communicative function attributions may serve, little is actually known about the reactions of observers to individuals' causal statements regarding their own or others' behavioral outcomes. To rule out perceived accuracy as an alternative explanation of the effects of concordance of causal understanding on…

Parents' reactions to the attractiveness of children and the influence of children's gender on parents' reactions were investigated. It was expected that, when rating attractive children, parents would give higher evaluations and have greater expectations than when rating unattractive children. It was further expected that parents would exhibit…

Recent studies on parental disciplinary practices focus on children's attributes that influence harshness of discipline. The present study examined the effects of facial babyishness on parents' recommendations regarding the discipline of 4- and 11-year-old children who had perpetrated an act of commission or of omission. It was predicted that the…

Interpersonal attraction appears to increase under aversive conditions. Two distinct theories suggest that attraction results from either misattribution or fear reduction. To investigate the effects of misattribution and fear reduction on attraction, 36 male college students were ostensibly exposed to an electromagnetic field while an attractive…

Although humor and laughter are most often based in fundamental social interactions, this element of communication has received little attention. To examine the socially facilitating effects of communication and social acceptance by analyzing children's intrapersonal perceptions of communication apprehension, or shyness, 169 children, aged 8 to 13…

Previous research on physical attractiveness stereotypes about marriage have used stimulus individuals in isolation. To examine these attractiveness stereotypes using couples as targets, 72 college students (36 females, 36 males) rated eight photographs of four male-female couple types. Members of each couple were either matched (attractive…

Research on social influence in counseling has examined how clients perceive counselors and how counselors influence clients. There has been little attention to counselors' perception of clients or the ways clients influence counselors. Research in this area could identify client characteristics which contribute to the counseling process and could…

Listening to an intimate self-diclosure does not always generate attraction for the revealer. One factor which may influence the relationship between disclosure and attraction is emotional empathy (i.e, an observer's reacting emotionally because he/she perceives that another is experiencing an emotion). To investigate whether emotional empathy on…

Research has shown that a client's positive views of a counselor enhance commitment to treatment, positive outcome expectancies, and receptivity to counselor influence. To examine the impact of counselor gender and physical attractiveness on perceived counselor effectiveness, 60 college students evaluated male and female counselors on 15 variables…

This study investigated the effect of similarity and reciprocity on dyadic friendship choices. Subjects were 34 third graders and 30 sixth graders. Reciprocal (mutual) and nonreciprocal (nonmutual) friendships were identified through use of the roster sociometric technique, whereby children choose their three best friends from an alphabetized list…

Earlier research investigating the relationship between physical attractiveness and assertiveness found that physically attractive females were more assertive than other females. To investigate this relationship further and to broaden the scope of the study, 69 students were videotaped in groups of five to ten while responding to open-ended…