Byrne's Reinforcement Theory

14 Pages 3520 Words

punishment is a vital determining factor. Byrne tested these ideas using three different lines of thinking. A stranger who is known to have attitudes and beliefs similar to those of the person is better liked than a stranger with attitudes dissimilar to those of the person. A stranger who is known to have attitudes similar to those of the person is judged to be more intelligent, better informed, more moral, and better adjusted than a stranger with attitudes dissimilar to those of the person. A stranger who is known to have similar attitudes on issues important to the person and dissimilar attitudes on unimportant issues is better liked and is evaluated more positively on the other four variables than a stranger for whom the reverse is true (Byrne). The method used for this experiment was to measure attitude, response frequencies, and to rate scales of interpersonal attraction and evaluation. Each issues was presented on a seven-point scale. The topics were arranged from extremely important (ex. integration, God, premarital sexual relatio...