Psychological kinship fulfillment and dating attraction

Males and females (N = 185) were assigned to High and Low psychological kinship groups using the Nava and Bailey (1991) Kinship Scale. The KS measures an individual’s desire to have “as-if” family type need fulfillment in nonbiologic relationships, such as dating. Ss were asked to mentally visualize a present or past dating partner and to express love and liking for the partner as well as provide physical attractiveness ratings for self and partner. Results indicated that Hi Kinship Ss clearly loved and liked their dating partners more than Lo Kinship Ss, and within-person congruency of physical attractiveness ratings characterized Lo-Males and Hi-Females. It appears that kinship need fulfillment can impact cognitive functioning as well as affective responses (i.e., love-liking feelings).