Reciprocity of Interpersonal Attraction: A Nonconfirmation of a Plausible Hypothesis

The hypothesis whose nonconfirmation is here reported is that with continuing acquaintance, dyads within a group will increasingly exchange similacr levels of interpersonal attraction. The following circumstances acre considered as possible sources of the nonconfirmation: the use of rank-ordering as a measure of each person 's attraction to each of the other group members, as creating artifactual effects; the use of ranks at all levels, instead of restricting them to high levels of attraction: the fact that estimnates of others' attraction to oneself did not become more accurate over time; and the development, over time, of consensual norms about the attraction status of all group members. The last of these is shown to be the most probable single explanation. Conditions under which the hypothesis probably comm be supported atre discussed.