What are the key factors that influence whether you will be attracted to someone?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There are three key factors that psychologists have identified as influences on whether you will be attracted to someone: (1) environment; (2) similarity; and (3) physical attractiveness. The first of these can be considered situational while the last two are attributes of the person. Two aspects of the environment seem to be particularly important. First, physical proximity contributes to liking someone. This phenomenon has been called the mere-exposure effect. Typically, if there isn't a strong initial negative impression, the greater exposure one has to people, the more one tends to like them. The second aspect of the environment that may influence liking is the association of the target person with pleasant experiences. Thus, meeting someone under enjoyable circumstances increases the chances that liking will develop.An important role is also played by the degree to which the person is similar to you, especially with respect to such factors as age, religion, and attitudes. Finally, as one might expect, physical attractiveness plays a role as well, with people generally liking others who are relatively physically attractive. However, it seems that people of comparable degrees of physical attractiveness tend to form friendships, date, and marry. The matching hypothesis proposes that people are more psychologically comfortable associating with people of roughly equivalent physical attractiveness, but others have suggested that such associations may result from compromises rather than actual preferences.