SHYNESS AND PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS IN MIXED-SEX DYADS

Male and female strangers' shyness and physical attractiveness strongly affected their own and their partners' behavior during initial, unstructured interactions. First, dyad-level measures of behavioral involvement and perceived interaction quality were independently predicted by the men's shyness and the women's physical attractiveness. Second, shy men exerted avoidant control over mutual gazing by denying their female partners (but not themselves) opportunities to initiate and terminate mutual gazes. Third, as physical attractiveness of the men increased, conversations included fewer references to 3rd-party individuals, with the women appearing to be primarily responsible for setting the "exclusive" tone of these conversations. Fourth, as physical attractiveness of the women increased, the men reported an increasing percentage of metaperspective thoughts and feelings that reflected the symbolic adoption of their female partners' perspective.