Skip to main content

Interpersonal Attraction

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology
  • 8 Accesses

Interpersonal attraction is an emotional connection that individuals develop in the course of social interaction. The general form is fondness or friendship, and the intensive form is love or affection. The principles of interpersonal attraction are: (1) Similarity principle. Individuals tend to like people with similar beliefs, values, attitudes, personality traits, appearance, age, and social status. (2) Complementarity. When the roles of the two individuals are different, they are more attractive when their abilities, personalities, and needs complement each other. (3) Physical attractiveness. Individuals generally like people who look good. (4) Mutuality principle. Individuals tend to like those who like them and dislike those who do not. (5) Familiarity or frequency of communication. Familiarity or high frequency of communication increases the degree of fondness. (6) Proximity principle. Individuals tend to like those in proximity when other conditions are similar.

Love includes...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Further Reading

  1. Aronson E, Wilson TD, Akert RM (2014) Social psychology, 8th edn. Pearson India Education Services Pvt. Ltd, Chennai

    Google Scholar 

  2. Yue G-A (2013) Social psychology, 2nd edn. China Renmin University Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhang Kan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 Encyclopedia of China Publishing House

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Decan, S., Kan, Z. (2024). Interpersonal Attraction. In: The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_593-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_593-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-6000-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-6000-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics