| dc.description.abstract | This study was designed to examine the self-fulfilling
nature of the social stigma of loneliness.
It was hypothesized that individuals (perceivers) would
be less warm and friendly in dyadic conversations with
persons believed to be lonely (lonely target) than not-lonely
(not-lonely target), and that partners would
reciprocate this behavior. These patterns were expected
to be stronger in female perceiver/male target than
male perceiver/female target dyads. In this study,
university students engaged in cross-sex dyadic
conversations prior to which they were provided with
items from the revised UCLA loneliness scale indicating
that their partner (target) was lonely or not-lonely.
The analyses revealed that, consistent with the
hypotheses, in female perceiver/male target dyads, the
perceiver was observed to be less warm during later
stages of the conversations when the male target was
lonely compared to when not-lonely. It was found that
about the same point in the conversations male targets
were observed to be less proud when lonely than not-lonely.
Additionally, subsequent to the conversations. | |
