Qualities admired in another from far away can be
threatening as that person approaches, according to UB research
(October 30, 2015) What
people believe they want and what they might actually prefer are not always the
same thing. And in the case of being outperformed as an element of romantic
attraction, the difference between genuine affinity and apparent desirability
becomes clearer as the distance between two people gets smaller.
In matters of relative performance, distance influences
attraction. For example, someone of greater intelligence seems attractive when
they’re distant or far away in your mind. But less so when that same person is
right next to you, according to a new study by a University at Buffalo-led
research team published in the latest edition of the journal Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin.
“We found that men preferred women who are smarter than them
in psychologically distant situations. Men rely on their ideal preferences when
a woman is hypothetical or imagined,” said Lora Park, associate professor in
the UB Department of Psychology and the study’s principal investigator. “But in
live interaction, men distanced themselves and were less attracted to a woman
who outperformed them in intelligence.”
Previous research has shown that similarities between
individuals can affect attraction. This new set of studies suggests that
psychological distance — whether someone is construed as being near or far in
relation to the self — plays a key role in determining attraction.