Social Psychology 487The third week involved making the two groups come together for pleasant,
noncompetitive activities, in the hope that cooperation would be the result. Instead,
the groups used the activities of the third week as opportunities for more hostility.
It was only after several weeks of being forced to work together to resolve a series
of crises (created deliberately by the experimenters) that the boys lost the hostility
and formed friendships between the groups. When dealing with the crises, the boys
were forced into a situation of equal status contact, in which they were all in the
same situation with neither group holding power over the other. Equal status contact
has been shown to reduce prejudice and discrimination, along with ongoing, positive
cooperation. It appears that personal involvement with people from another group
must be cooperative and occur when all groups are equal in terms of power or status
to have a positive effect on reducing prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000; Robinson &
Preston, 1976).
THE “JIGSAW CLASSROOM” One possible way to help promote contact between peo-
ple from different backgrounds occur in a cooperative fashion is to make success at
a task dependent on the cooperation of each person in a group of people of mixed
abilities or statuses. If each member of the group has information that is needed
to solve the problem at hand, a situation is created in which people must depend
on one another to meet their shared goals (Aronson et al., 1978). Ordinarily, school
classrooms are not organized along these lines but are instead more competitive
and, therefore, more likely to create conflict between people of different abilities and
backgrounds.
In a “jigsaw classroom,” students have to work together to reach a specific goal.
Each student is given a “piece of the puzzle,” or information that is necessary for solving
the problem and reaching the goal (Aronson et al., 1978; Clarke, 1994). Students then
share their information with other members of the group. Interaction among diverse stu-
dents is increased, making it more likely that those students will come to see each other
as partners and form friendly relationships rather than labeling others as members of an
out-group and treating them differently. This technique works at the college level as well
as in the lower school grades (Johnson et al., 1991; Lord, 2001).
Interpersonal Attraction
- 12 Identify factors involved in interpersonal attraction.
Prejudice pretty much explains why people don’t like each other. What does psychology
say about why people like someone else? There are some “rules” for those whom peo-
ple like and find attractive. Liking or having the desire for a relationship with someone
else is called interpersonal attraction, and there’s a great deal of research on the subject.
(Who wouldn’t want to know the rules?) Several factors are involved in the attraction of
one person to another, including both superficial physical characteristics, such as physi-
cal beauty and proximity, as well as elements of personality.
PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS When people think about what attracts them to others,
one of the topics that usually arises is the physical attractiveness of the other person.
Some research suggests that physical beauty is one of the main factors that influence
individuals’ choices for selecting people they want to know better, although other fac-
tors may become more important in the later stages of relationships (Eagly et al., 1991;
Feingold, 1992; White, 1980).
PROXIMITY—CLOSE TO YOU The closer together people are physically, such as work-
ing in the same office building or living in the same dorm, the more likely they are
to form a relationship. Proximity refers to being physically near someone else. People
choose friends and lovers from the pool of people available to them, and availability
depends heavily on proximity.
equal status contact
contact between groups in which the
groups have equal status with neither
grouR having Rower over the other.jigsaw classroom
educational technique in which
each individual is given only part
of the information needed to solve
a problem, causing the separate
individuals to be forced to work
together to find the solution.interpersonal attraction
liking or having the desire for a
relationshiR with another Rerson.