This study first examines the effectiveness of stealing thunder in increasing the target’s liking for the discloser. The study further inspects liking relative to the amount of information known about the discloser prior to their initial interaction. Additionally, the target’s perception of the negativity of the information revealed is observed. 120 subjects participated in an experiment during which they were either exposed to the negative information via the confederate or the experimenter or were not exposed at all. Results, although interesting, were largely inconsistent with the hypotheses. This could have been due to several factors namely, poor experimental execution and unreliability of measurement. However, stealing thunder, with further testing, has several implications for the current state of the stealing thunder literature and future research.

This study investigates the phenomenon of asymmetric interpersonal relationships—dyads in which one individual has greater knowledge of personal information about the other. Relationships usually benefit from self-disclosure when it is done in a reciprocal, personal manner; acquiring information through such means as Facebook can disrupt the process, offset information balance and negatively affect interrelationship factors. This study investigates the effect of information asymmetry on such factors as interpersonal attraction, subjective power, and social interaction anxiety. Participants were given Facebook profiles with varying amounts of information (high, low, or none) prior to interacting with a confederate. I predicted that participants in the high information condition would experience the greatest social interaction anxiety and the least interpersonal attraction. Increased anxiety would mediate a reduction in interpersonal attraction. Participants with no prior information were expected to exhibit opposite tendencies compared to the high information condition. A secondary effect on subjective power was also explored. Results did not reach statistical significance but were in the directions as hypothesized. Findings indicate that imbalance of interpersonal information has the potential to negatively impact relationship factors.

The basic premise of this dissertation is that other customers, as part of the service environments, have direct or indirect influences on target customer¡¦s interpersonal attraction and then affect overall service experience. These effects received increasing attention in recent service marketing literature. However, most of studies dedicated their attention to the effect of other customers¡¦ behaviors; thus, an obvious limitation of existing literature is the neglect of other customers¡¦ characteristics. This research gap became the major research motivation of this dissertation. Moreover, this dissertation introduced an important but rarely discussed psychological response ¡V target customer¡¦s interpersonal attraction. Based on relevant literature, the author proposed a overall framework which considered the effects of other customers¡¦ behaviors, observable similarity, and physical appearance on target customer¡¦s interpersonal attraction evaluation. Moreover, the author also explored the relationship between target customer¡¦s interpersonal attraction evaluation and his/her overall satisfaction, purchase intention, and anxiety perception. Four scenario-based experiments were conducted to verify proposed hypotheses. In Experiment 1, the effects of other customers¡¦ appropriate / inappropriate behaviors and observable similarity were examined. The results indicated significant main effects and an interaction effect. Other customers¡¦ observable similarity had an alleviating effect on interpersonal attraction. Experiment 2 tested the relationships between other customers¡¦ behaviors, physical appearance, and interpersonal attraction. Results were similar to findings of Experiment 1. Other customer¡¦s physical appearance had an alleviating effect. A supplementary survey reported that people tend to justify physically-attractive persons¡¦ inappropriate behaviors. Experiment 3 concerned about the negative effects of physical appearance on interpersonal attraction by manipulating other customers¡¦ appraisals toward target customer¡¦s product choice. The last experiment empirically verified the stabilizing effect proposed by marketing scholars. The author found that other customers¡¦ anxiety-reducing behaviors could lower target customer¡¦s perceived anxiety and produce higher interpersonal attraction. In all four experiments, target customers¡¦; interpersonal attraction had positive correlation with overall satisfaction, purchase intention, or anxiety perception. Interpersonal attraction at least partially mediated manipulated factors¡¦ effects on satisfaction. This dissertation¡¦s last chapter provided summary of experiment findings, theoretical and managerial implications, research limitations, and future research directions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 16, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-41)

Not available / text

Not available / text

People use facial appearance to infer the social attributes of others. A primary indicator of facial attractiveness is prototypicality (the proximity of an object to its categorical central tendency); faces and objects closer to the central tendency are judged as more attractive. Perceptual fluency theory suggests that cognitive processing speed directly generates positive affect. This dissertation examined the relationships among attractiveness, prototypicality, and affective response in faces and non-face objects across adult and 8-year-old participants using a reaction time (RT) paradigm. RT predicted positive affect and disgust responses to facial stimuli. Of particular note are the series of complementary findings suggesting that reaction to unattractive faces may be both quantitatively (i.e., longer RT latencies) and qualitatively (i.e., judged to be less typical) different from high and medium attractive faces. These findings may help explain how appearance-based stereotypes are formed and maintained. / text

Not available / text

It has been well documented that our physical characteristics exert a strong influence on the way others react to us. The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' attitudes and behavior toward the physically disabled. It was hypothesized that although initial verbal reactions

No description available.