Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-disclosure of desirable contents on interpersonal attraction. It was hypothesized that the disclosers who reveal either extremely positive or extremely negative aspects of themselves will be disliked more than those who reveal not only their positive aspects but also negative ones.
Fifty female lunior college students participated in the experiment. They were presented ascene of conversation of two women in the VTR, in which the proportion of self-enhancing (positive) disclosures was manipulated from 20% to 100% with 5 levels. Then, they rated the attraction for the disclosure from the point of view bf the listener in the VTR.
The obtained results clearly supported the hypothesis. That is, the disclosure of desirable self had the “reversed-U type” effect on the various attraction measures. Particularly, the discloser of 60% self-enhancing (moderately positive) disclosure condition was liked most of all the experimental conditions. This finding was dicussed in terms of Jones & Wortman's (1973) ingratiation theory.
