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The Effects of Body Language and Affilaitive Motivation on Social Tuning and Likeability

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Past research shows that affiliative motivation predicts the likelihood of social tuning. The current experiment examines whether affiliative motivation and body language influence social tuning. Eighty-three participants were led to believe they would interact with their partner for 5 or 30 minutes (affiliative motivation manipulation). Participants also saw a photo of their “partner”. This photo either showed open or closed body language (body language manipulation). Results show a main effect of body language on likeability such that participants rated their ostensible partner as more likeable when displaying closed body language. Thus the findings are contrary to previous research stating that open body language is seen as more likeable.

  • This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.
Creator
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Identifier
  • E-project-031113-173215
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Year
  • 2013
Date created
  • 2013-03-11
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Last modified
  • 2021-02-03

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