You Only Hurt the Ones You Love
October 19, 2009
The Gain-Loss Effect
Aronson and Linder (1965)
The “law of infidelity,” derived from E. Aronson’s (1969) gain-loss theory of attraction, predicts that when 2 evaluators compete for the affections of an evaluatee, the one whose evaluations begin negatively but then become positive (a gain evaluator) will be liked more than a consistently positive evaluator. Experimental support for gain-loss theory has been obtained exclusively under single-evaluator conditions where the S evaluatee received evaluations from only one evaluator who either delivered a gain series or a continuously positive series of evaluations. The “law of infidelity,” however, predicts attraction in a competitive triangle, a double-evaluator situation, where the S evaluatee receives evaluations both from the gain evaluator and the positive evaluator. The present study with 70 female undergraduates confirmed the hypotheses that while a gain evaluator is liked more than a positive evaluator under single-evaluator conditions, when placed in direct competition with each other in a double-evaluator situation, the gain evaluator is no longer preferred; rather, the positive evaluator is liked significantly more. These and other findings are discussed in terms of the importance of contextual factors in the prediction of interpersonal attraction.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/33/6/709/
