Close encounters: Interpersonal proximity amplifies social appraisals.
Social appraisals reflect the rapid integration of available perceptual information with broader contextual factors (e.g., intentions). While interpersonal distance affects both information availability and social context, how it changes trait impressions remains unknown. Over four experiments, we u...
| Published in: | British Journal of Psychology Vol. 116; no. 3; pp. 594 - 617 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Aug2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=186621257&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 186621257 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00071269 BJP jtl: British Journal of Psychology issn: 00071269 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2025 vid: 116 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 186621257 10.1111/bjop.12781 ppf: 594 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: Close encounters: Interpersonal proximity amplifies social appraisals. aug: au: Veranic, Kristina Bayliss, Andrew P. Zhao, Mintao Stephen, Ian D. Ewing, Louise affil: University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Bournemouth University, Poole, UK su: Aesthetics Social perception Body image Analysis of variance Trust Judgment (Psychology) Interpersonal relations Statistical models Scale analysis (Psychology) Research funding Prompts (Psychology) T-test (Statistics) Data analysis Descriptive statistics Experimental design Intention Statistics Confidence intervals Data analysis software Face perception sug: subj: Aesthetics Social perception Body image Analysis of variance Trust Judgment (Psychology) Interpersonal relations Statistical models Scale analysis (Psychology) Research funding Prompts (Psychology) T-test (Statistics) Data analysis Descriptive statistics Experimental design Intention Statistics Confidence intervals Data analysis software Face perception keyword: body perception face perception interpersonal distance person perception trait attribution body perception face perception interpersonal distance person perception trait attribution ab: Social appraisals reflect the rapid integration of available perceptual information with broader contextual factors (e.g., intentions). While interpersonal distance affects both information availability and social context, how it changes trait impressions remains unknown. Over four experiments, we used a novel paradigm to address this question. In Experiment 1, we assessed participants' attributions of attractiveness, competence, dominance and trustworthiness of life size full body images of people when they appeared at near (1 m) and far (4 m) distances. Proximity amplified the relative magnitude of both positive and negative socio‐evaluative impressions. However, this effect of proximity leading to more extreme positive or negative ratings was selectively weaker for aesthetic (attractiveness) judgements. In Experiment 2 (size) and Experiment 3 (spatial frequency), we held distance constant while manipulating visual cues relating to implied distance, revealing broadly similar results to Experiment 1. In Experiment 4, we used the interpersonal comfort distance paradigm to confirm that our life‐sized projected images elicited similar comfort distance to interacting with a real person, helping to validate our general approach. These findings demonstrate the crucial role of interpersonal distance in impression judgements. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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