Abstract
Male undergraduate students were randomly assigned to experimental conditions designed to induce feelings of success, failure, or uncertainty as to their performance on ambiguous outcome tasks described as measures of intelligence. Subjects’ attitudes toward an attractive female confederate encountered in a subsequent interview-like situation partially supported the “warm glow” hypothesis whereby success is expected to facilitate positive response dispositions toward others. Successful subjects expressed significantly stronger liking for the confederate and greater likelihood of asking her for a date than did failure subjects or uncertainty controls. But when she was presented in a physically unattractive way, just the opposite results were obtained. Methodological and theoretical issues are considered in discussing directions for multivariate research into trait and situational determinants of the interpersonal effects of success and failure.
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This research was supported in part by a grant to the first author from the San Jose State University Foundation.
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Pellegrini, R.J., Hicks, R.A. & Meyers-Winton, S. Situational Affective Arousal and Heterosexual Attraction: Some Effects of Success, Failure, and Physical Attractiveness. Psychol Rec 29, 453–462 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394635
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394635