propinquity

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In social psychology, propinquity (from Latin propinquitas, "nearness") is one of the main factors leading to interpersonal attraction. It refers to the physical or psychological proximity between people. Propinquity can mean physical proximity, a kinship between people, or a similarity in nature between things ("like-attracts-like"). Two people living on the same floor of a building, for example, have a higher propinquity than those living on different floors, just as two people with similar political beliefs possess a higher propinquity than those whose beliefs strongly differ. Propinquity is also one of the factors, set out by Jeremy Bentham, used to measure the amount of (utilitarian) pleasure in a method known as felicific calculus.

Propinquity effect

The propinquity effect is the tendency for people to form friendships or romantic relationships with those whom they encounter often, forming a bond between subject and friend. Occupational propinquity based on a person's career, is also commonly seen as a factor in marriage selection. Workplace interactions are frequent and this frequent interaction is often a key indicator as to why close relationships can readily form in this type of environment. ^[1] In other words, relationships tend to form between those who have a high propinquity. It was first theorized by psychologists Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, and Kurt Back in what came to be called the Westgate studies conducted at MIT (1950).^[2] The typical Euler diagram used to represent the propinquity effect is shown below where U = universe, A = set A, B = set B, and S = similarity:

The sets are basically any relevant subject matter about a person, persons, or non-persons, depending on the context. Propinquity can be more than just physical distance. Residents of an apartment building living near a stairway, for example, tend to have more friends from other floors than those living further from the stairway. The propinquity effect is usually explained by the mere exposure effect, which holds that the more exposure a stimulus gets, the more likeable it becomes.

In a study on interpersonal attraction (Piercey and Piercey, 1972), 23 graduate psychology students, all from the same class, underwent 9 hours of sensitivity training in two groups. Students were given pre- and post-tests to rate their positive and negative attitudes toward each class member. Members of the same sensitivity training group rated each other higher in the post-test than they rated: members of the other group in both the pre- and post-test, and members of their own group in the pre-test. The results indicated that the 9 hours of sensitivity training increased the exposure of students in the same group to each other, and thus they became more likeable to each other. ^[3]

Propinquity is one of the effects used to study group dynamics

In popular culture

An episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis entitled Love is a Science shows Zelda Gilroy assuring Dobie Gillis that he would eventually come to love her through the influence of propinquity, as their similar last names would put them in proximity throughout school. In a 1988 made-for-TV movie based on the series, Dobie and Zelda were portrayed as being married.

Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care) is a song by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. It was first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy.

On page 478 of Jonathan Franzen's 2010 novel Freedom, Walter attributes his inability to stop having sex with Lalitha to their "daily propinquity."

See also

• Human bonding
• Proxemics
• Westermarck effect

References

External links

• Propinquity Effect
• Human Mate Selection – An Exploration of Assortive Mating Preferences – (has two pages of propinquity studies)