Interactive effects of eye contact and verbal content on interpersonal attraction in dyads.

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Abstract
Studied the effects of amount of eye contact and verbal content on interpersonal-attraction ratings in 2 experiments using televised dyadic interactions. A 3rd experiment varied amount of eye contact, physical attractiveness, and social competence. A total of 462 male and 49 female undergraduates served as Ss. Exp. I used a 3 * 3 factorial design with 3 levels of eye contact and 3 degrees of positiveness of personal evaluation by a confederate. With negative verbal content, increasing eye contact led to greater liking; with positive verbal content, more liking was associated with low eye contact. In Exp. II, a 2 * 2 * 2 design, the effects of personal vs. impersonal positive evaluation, high or low eye contact, and sex of dyad were investigated. With personal positive evaluation, the confederate was better liked when low eye contact was established; with impersonal evaluation, high eye contact led to greater attraction. Exp. III was a 2 * 2* *3 design with 2 levels of eye contact, 2 levels of confederate attractiveness, and 3 levels of self-reported social competence (using the Texas Social Behavior Inventory). Ss of low and intermediate social competence were positively influenced by both attraction and eye contact. Ss high on social competence were less affected by attractiveness and not affected by level of eye contact. 2 main effects, eye contact and attractiveness, were highly significant. Further explication of the results is complicated by the triple-order interaction. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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