Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 6 November 1964:
Vol. 146. no. 3645, pp. 798 - 799
DOI: 10.1126/science.146.3645.798
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Attitude Statements as Positive and Negative Reinforcements

Carole Golightly 1 and Donn Byrne 1

1 Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin

The finding that attraction is a function of attitude similarity has been interpreted as a special case of the effect of positive and negative reinforcements on attraction. A simple discrimination learning task was employed in which the reinforcements were attitude statements similar and dissimilar to the opinions of the subject. The presentation of similar attitude statements after each correct response and dissimilar attitude statements after each incorrect response significantly changed response probability. The hypothesis that such statements could be used as reinforcers in a learning situation was thus confirmed.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
An Overview (and Underview) of Research and Theory within the Attraction Paradigm.
D. Byrne (1997)
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 14, 417-431
   Abstract »
Byrne's Social Psychology of Sexual Behavior and the Social Behaviorism Approach: Pre-Paradigmatic Separatism.
A. W. Staats (1978)
Pers Soc Psychol Bull 4, 491-497
   Abstract »
Teacher-Student Attitude Similarity and Information Retention.
J. R. Dilendik (1975)
American Educational Research Journal 12, 405-414
   PDF »
Attraction toward a Negro Stranger as a Function of Prejudice, Attitude Similarity, and the Stranger's Evaluation of the Subject.
D. Byrne and C. R. Ervin (1969)
Human Relations 22, 397-404
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)