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Increased Attraction through Proximity

As more and more relationships become long distance with the advent of technology, research suggests that while similarities are an important factor for a strong interpersonal relationship, proximity is also large factor in liking someone. Not only do we place ourselves closer to those we like, we also begin liking those who are close to us. The more we see and interact with someone, the more we will begin to likely they will be our friends or romantic partners. Proximity leads to attraction because of the concept of familiarity, specifically though the mere exposure effect only if the initial attitude towards the stimuli is not negative.,,

From multiple studies, it is shown that the number of interactions will increase attraction and result in deeper relationships. By constantly interacting with them and seeing their face, we become more familiar with them, leading to greater liking. We are more attracted to people we recognize than people who are strangers. One study found that those who were more familiar with a place typically had more positive attitudes and favorable impressions. This familiarity concept is consistent with other existing research on the effect of familiarity in the social interactions of children. By observing 50-minute sessions of standardized play among different children, it was seen that with a familiar peer, social play was more frequent. In effect, the social and cognitive level of play was higher. In the unfamiliar condition with a peer from another center, the children engaged in nonsocial activities such as solitary play or merely observance. On the other hand, when playing with a child more familiar to them, play was not only more dramatic with a make-believe role but social interaction was also higher. By interacting with someone more familiar, the children were able to have a more complex, socially active, and cognitively advanced experience. Frequency of interaction is essential to attraction from proximal relationships. Recent research suggest that liking is enhanced not by the negative or positive context of the stimuli, but the frequency of this stimuli. This study concluded that tasting a bad drink, a negative context, still allows people to have a positive relationship as they are more exposed to the person they interact with. Even when the encounters were unpleasant, the mere exposure effect overcame the situational factors.

In direct relation to the effects of familiarity, the mere exposure effect plays a large role in our attraction even when unintentional because it states that the more often we are exposed to a stimulus, the more we are likely to be attracted to it. There is a large amount of evidence of the mere exposure effect not only towards other people, but also to products. The results of a study show that mere exposure to a brand name frequently encourages people to have a more favorable attitude toward the product even when the initial exposure has been forgotten. Specifically, the study shows that even unintentional exposure contributes to the mere exposure effect. This influence is automatic, engaging memory access, implicit memory formation, and perceptual construction. It was found that the more exposed a brand is, even incidentally, will increase liking because the consumer is more familiar with the product. Thus, even passing a student in the hallway everyday will positively affect your attraction to the person because the number of exposures will increase familiarity.

However, it is important to note that the mere exposure effect does not work for stimuli that are initially regarded negatively. For example, a study shows that even as people became more familiar with nursing homes with those who had a previous negative perception of them, there was a stronger association of the nursing home as institutional and not homelike. Increased exposure to an initially unfavorable place enhances these negative evaluations. Furthermore, if the contexts that interaction occurs are frequently negative, it will multiply the negative attitude as a study on mere exposure suggests. In this study, even as the number of exposure to the pictures increased, the results revealed that the negative evaluations increased as the "bad" picture of the black man in a negative setting was viewed. Initial impressions are magnified as the number of interactions increase.Thus, the more often we are exposed to a person, place, or object with an initial negative attitude, the more likely we will not be attracted to the stimulus.

We can conclude that the more often we are exposed to another person through proximity, we become more familiar and attracted to the person. The mere exposure effect plays a large role in multiplying the feelings of attraction as the subject is more exposed to the stimulus. These encounters do not need to be made in a positive context nor intentionally as shown in the previous studies mentioned., However, the initial attitude toward the stimulus must be positive because the mere exposure effect enhances those initial attitudes. Through proximity, we become more familiar and attracted to people we have interacted with on multiple occasions.