Assessing Social Approachability: Individual Differences, In-Group Biases, and Experimental Control

The willingness of strangers to approach others and engage in social interactions is a fundamental social evaluation. Yet, evidence is lacking on how well these social engagement decisions can be assessed. The authors evaluated the psychometric characteristics of an experimentally based measure of social approachability tendencies. Young adults (N = 130) rated the approachability of 48 emotionally neutral and mildly positive faces. Significant variance in approachability judgements was attributable to differences in the faces and in the participants making the judgements. Face-level approachability ratings were comparable across face gender and face race. Person-level approachability ratings identified reliable individual differences, gender. and race in-group biases, and subtle mere-exposure effect preferences. Thus, this social approachability measure is internally reliable, sensitive to individual differences, and amenable to experimental manipulations. This ability to differentiate individual-, group-, and experimental-level responses is important for furthering the understanding of the primary social decision of when to approach and socially engage others.