In the two-dimensional cognitive model of interpersonal attraction, (a) trust in willingness to facilitate goals/needs of each other and (b) respect for capacity to execute that willingness have been postulated to be necessary for relationship development. However, the extant literature shows supremacy of trust over respect in drawing two strangers together. Thus, the present authors hypothesized that trust and respect might drive attraction equally when the partner’s liking for the participant is known along with attitude similarity between them. When attitude similarity and partner’s liking were manipulated and both respect and trust were measured before attraction in an experiment conducted in Singapore (N = 176), there were similar additive effects on the three responses of trust, respect, and attraction. Importantly, and as hypothesized, trust and respect equally mediated the similarity and liking effects when trust was conceptualized as preceding respect in determining attraction.

This research analyzed how affinity to word-of-mouth (WOM) provider influences on purchase decision making in high and low “affinity” conditions when WOM contradicted with electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM). Participants had to select from product A or product B, with information only about WOM comment (positive or negative), EWOM comment (positive or negative), and affinity to WOM provider (high or low). We focused on participants who made decisions contradictive with their evaluation of WOM and EWOM trustworthiness. The results suggested psychological processes that affinity directly influences decision making as an emotional factor, sometimes causing contradictive decisions. Among participants who evaluated EWOM more trustworthy, degree of affinity made significant differences in ratios of contradictive decisions by adopting WOM.

It is customary for Japanese healthcare workers to use finger pointing toward drugs and prescriptions when they prepare and administer medication to patients, which is believed to be effective to avoid medication errors. The present study investigated whether finger pointing would be effective to avoid confusion errors and anchoring of the gaze on the word pointed to would be a plausible explanation for the potential effects. Sixteen participants observed four drug names with or without pointing with the index finger and determined whether the target drug name was present or not as quickly and accurately as possible (i.e., a choice reaction-time task). The number of similar drug names with the target word was manipulated. The results showed that finger pointing was effective to reduce the error rate when only single similar word existed. Analyses of gaze behavior showed that the fixation duration and number of fixations per drug name increased under finger pointing condition. These results suggest that finger pointing is likely to be effective to fixate a target drug name for a longer time; the effects on error prevention seem to be evident when the error rate itself is relatively high.

Personality traits that influence on individuals’ communication and relationship behavior, assertiveness and responsiveness, are presumed to be important components for sexual behavior. We investigated the relationships of assertiveness and responsiveness to sexual behavior and tested the relative contributions of personality and physical traits (e.g., body shapes, fluctuating asymmetry, and digit ratios) to the prediction of sexual behavior. Additionally, we examined whether the effect of these personality traits on sexual behavior interacts with each other and with body attractiveness. Assertiveness had substantial effects on sexual behaviors for both sexes, whereas responsiveness had a negative effect in men and null effect in women. The finding of the relative contributions of personality and physical traits indicate that variation in sexual behavior is much bigger for personality traits than physical traits, probably gaining insight into the magnitude of variation in traits under frequency-dependent selection and those under positive selection. Moreover, interaction effects indicate that mating success is also an outcome of the concerted interplay of personalities and body attractiveness. Findings support the evolutionary hypotheses that personality traits are alternative adaptive strategies evolved as a means of ensuring fitness.