Environmental influences on attraction: Effects of heat, attitude similarity, and personal evaluations

Bulletin of the Psycho nomic Society 1974, Vol. 4 (5A), 479·481 Environmental influences on attraction: Effects of heat, attitude similarity, and personal evaluations* PAUL A. BELL and ROBERT A. BARON Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Eighty undergraduate males received either a positive or a negative personal evaluation from an attitudinally similar or dissimilar confederate. Experimental sessions were conducted under either comfortably cool (73 F) or uncomfortably hot (92 F) environmental conditions. Attraction toward the confederate was primarily influenced by the personal evaluation and attitude similarity variables. Although high ambient temperatures markedly decreased Ss' affective state, exposure to heat did not consistently lower their attraction toward the confederate: Several procedural differences are proposed to account for the inconsistent influence of heat on attraction reported in the present and previous research. 0 0 The influence of the physical environment on human social behavior has become the focus of considerable research in recent years. One of the environmental variables most frequently studied in this regard has been that of heat (i.e., high ambient temperatures). Intuitively, the discomfort caused by exposure to stifling hot environmental conditions would seem to facilitate a variety of responses or emotional reactions such as irritation, short tempers, and flight. Empirically, high ambient temperatures have indeed been shown to decrease interpersonal attraction (Griffitt, 1970; Griffitt & Veitch, 1971) and either to inhibit or to facilitate human aggression, depending on other factors in the physical and social environment (Baron, 1972; Baron & Bell, in press; Baron & Lawton, 1972). From a theoretical perspective, much of the environmental resarch on interpersonal attraction has been interpreted within the context of Byrne's (1971) reinforcement-affect model of attraction. According to this model, reinforcing stimuli, such as attitude statements and personal evaluations, evoke implicit positive and negative affective responses from observers (Byrne & Rhamey, 1965). Any previously neutral stimulus, such as the stimulus person to whom the attitudes or personal evaluations are attributed, can also become capable of eliciting the implicit affective responses through association with the positively or negatively reinforcing stimuli. Since this impliCit affect theoretically mediates attraction toward the stimulus person, it follows that lowering the overall affective state of the observer through exposure to uncomfortably high ambient temperatures or other unpleasant environmental stimuli, will consequently decrease attraction toward the stimulus person (see, e.g., Griffitt, 1970). The reinforcing stimuli employed by Griffitt (1970) and by Griffitt and Veitch (1971) consisted of attitude statements attributed to a bogus stranger which were similar or dissimilar to the attitudes held by Ss. As would be predicted by the reinforcement-affect model, exposure to high ambient temperatures decreased attraction toward both similar and dissimilar strangers. Additional-research on this attraction model has shown that stimuli embodying larger magnitudes of reinforcement than attitude statements, such as positive and negative personal evaluations, evoke stronger affective responses and thus have a more pronounced effect on attraction (Byrne & Rhamey, 1965). It follows from the reinforcement-affect model, moreover, that exposure to heat will have a negative effect on the overall affective state of Ss, and consequently on their attraction responses, even when stimuli with very large magnitudes of reinforcement are employed as the primary determinant of attraction. The purpose of the present experiment, then, is that of extending Griffitt's research by examining the effects on attraction of exposure to high ambient temperatures when stimuli having relatively large magnitudes of reinfoicement are also used to manipulate attraction. Specifically, it is predicted that exposure to high ambient temperatures will decrease feelings of comfort, and consequently decrease attraction toward a stimulus person. It is further hypothesized that this influence of heat will be independent of the effects on attraction of similar or dissimilar attitudes and positive or negative personal evaluations associated with the stimulus person. *The authors would like to express their appreciation to Frank Dougherty and Stan Lelak for their assistance in the collection of the data. This research was supported by a grant (GS-35176) from the National Science Foundation to Robert A. Baron. Requests for reprints should be sent to Paul A. Bell, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. METHOD 479 Subjects Forty male students enrolled in sections of elementary psychology served as Ss. Participation in the experiment satisfied part of a course requirement. 480 BELL AND BARON Design A 2 by 2 by 2 factorial design was employed, based on two levels of ambient temperature (cool, hot), two levels of personal evaluation (positive, negative), and two levels of attitude similarity (similar, dissimilar). Five Ss were randomly assigned to each cell of the design. Table 1 Mean Ratings of Attraction as a Function of Ambient Temperature, Personal Evaluations, and Attitude Similarity Cool Temperature Evaluation Hot Temperature Evaluation Procedure When Ss arrived for their experimental appointments, a male E explained they would be participating, along with another individual (actually a male confederate), in an experiment designed to examine the influence of temperature and humidity upon physiological reactions and performance. The E then cond ucted the S and confederate into the laboratory and, as part of the cover story, took a measure of their blood pressure. He also asked both participants at this time to complete a personal feelings scale (PFS), ostensibly for the purpose of comparing subjective and physiological reactions. The PFS (see Griffitt, 1970) contained six seven-point scales along which Ss rated their current feelings (comfortable-uncomfortable, bad-good, high-low, sad-happy, plesant-unpleasant, negative-positive). Following these procedures, the S and confederate participated in a "complex social perception and interpersonal judgment task." In this task they each completed a 10-item attitude survey and used the information contained in each other's attitudes to rate one another on a number of personal traits, using Byrne's (1971) interpersonal judgment scale (IJS). The E arranged for the confederate to perform the task first, so that this person had an opportunity to complete his own attitude survey after exarning the S's survey. More specifically, he completed his survey so as to agree with nine (similar condition) or only one (dissimilar condition) of the Ss attitudes. In addition, the confederate completed his IJS (...truncated)