People tend to see strangers in a more positive light physically if they want to be friends and expect to spend time with them, according to new research published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The findings provide evidence that interest in a friendship with a stranger influences evaluations of their physical attributes.
Previous psychology research has demonstrated that we tend to believe we’re better than average and that our friends and family are better too. The researchers behind the new study wanted to know if this positive view also happens when we meet new people we don’t know. They were curious about whether we also evaluate strangers differently if we think we might become friends with them and spend time together.
“I was interested in this topic because the way we perceive and evaluate strangers, especially when considering friendships, is a fundamental aspect of human social interaction,” said study author Natalia Kononov, a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University. “In many instances, we need to interact with people we don’t know, and first impressions are determined very quickly. I was interested in how we can boost initial first impressions using motivation processes.”
The researchers conducted three different studies to see if people would think strangers are more attractive and pleasant if they expect to become friends with them. The studies included 4,755 participants recruited via Prolific in total.
In the first study, the participants were told they were part of a “Netflix club” where they discuss shows and movies with other members. They were introduced to a new member of the club named “Avery,” read about Avery’s everyday life, and were shown a picture of her.
The researchers then randomly assigned he participants to one of three conditions: Participants were told that Avery and they had similar interests and would become good friends, participants were told that Avery and they had different interests and would probably not become friends, or participants were given neutral information about Avery’s preferences (the control condition).
The researchers found that participants who were led to believe they would become friends with Avery evaluated Avery as more beautiful. This was true for both men and women. It seemed like the desire to be friends and the expected time spent together affected how they saw the person’s appearance.
In the second study, the researchers used a similar methodology, but this time they used a person named Jacob. They wanted to test whether interest in friendship would impact the evaluation of other physical aspects, such as having a nice smell and a pleasant voice. They found that when people were interested in being friends with Jacob and thought they’d spend more time with him, they thought he looked better, smelled better, and had a more pleasant voice — even though no scents or sounds were provided.
“The main thing that can be taken away from this study is that merely planting the idea in an unfamiliar person’s head that we may spend time together could bias their evaluation of us,” Kononov told PsyPost. “Many times, we think that a person should like us to evaluate us favorably, but it’s also important that they think we will spend time together and see each other. This understanding can have practical implications in various social interactions and relationship-building scenarios.”
In the third study, the researchers wanted to see if the effect still happened even if it wasn’t possible to really become friends. Participants were told they started working at a new firm and met a new employee whom they wanted to become friends with. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Participants were either told that they and the employee would be working closely together or told that they and the employee would work in distant locations and not see each other much.
The researchers found that when people thought they’d spend more time with the employee, they evaluated them more positively in terms of appearance, smell, and voice. This showed that the desire to be friends and the possibility of spending time together influenced how they saw the person physically.
“We were surprised to learn that the tendency to positively evaluate others just because we like them can be hindered by the fact that we will not see that person in person,” Kononov said. “It was interesting to see that the amount of time people thought they would spend with the unfamiliar person is also important — the more time, the more positively they saw the stranger. It was also surprising that the effect was as robust for both men and women, as we didn’t find any gender differences.”
The research provides valuable insights into the evaluation of strangers, but there are areas where further investigation is needed.
“It’s interesting to think about the virtual world in which many interactions nowadays take place,” Kononov said. “How does expecting to spend time with someone virtually influence our evaluations of that person? Our study focused on physical interactions, but the rise of virtual communication poses new questions and challenges. Understanding how virtual interactions might mirror or differ from in-person ones is an intriguing area for future research.”
“This research opens up new avenues for understanding how we perceive and evaluate others, not only in romantic or familial relationships but also in friendships,” Kononov added.
The study, “Beautiful Strangers: Physical Evaluation of Strangers Is Influenced by Friendship Expectation“, was authored by Natalia Kononov and Danit Ein-Gar.