Optimum conformity as an ingratiation tactic.

The article focuses on optimum conformity as an ingratiation tactic. The present investigation concerns the manner in which a person resolves a particular dilemma in making himself attractive to another. It is one of a series of studies investigating the use of restricted communication opportunities for ingratiating self-presentations. If a person is concerned with presenting an attractive "face" to another and has been apprized of the other's opinions, a convenient and common way to accomplish this is to express opinions which are highly similar to those of the other, to agree with him or at least to minimize the degree of disagreement two students like themselves. Following instructions given on the recording, one of these students always expressed his opinions after hearing the opinions of the other. It was so arranged that the degree of agreement was always very close in one treatment and moderately close or variable in another treatment a cross-cutting variation presented the opinion interchange in two different contexts approximately half the Ss heard the interchange described on the recording as a preliminary to a lucrative and attractive experiment-if the students ended up attracted to each other, the remaining Ss heard the interchange presented as a first impression session in which candor and accurate self-revelation were crucial. The major dependent variable was the rated impression of the student forced to go second in the recorded interchange. As predicted, Ss disliked and deprecated this student when the context raised the importance of attraction and he responded with slavish opinion agreement.