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Facial Resemblance to Significant Others Influences Snap Judgments Ever wonder why you are initially drawn to some people, but not to others? New research in the PAC Lab shows that a new person's objective facial resemblance to one's significant other influences snap judgments of liking, even when individuals are not consciously aware of the resemblance. This study is the first to demonstrate that objective facial similarity, as opposed to subjective similarity, spontaneously activates mental representations of a significant other, which is subsequently used to evaluate a new person. This effect, referred to as transference, is more pronounced for individuals who report higher relationship satisfaction. Download the Full Text |
• Ivanhoe Newswire features Vivian Zayas's research on maternal attachment and its influences on adult romantic relationships.
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• Blog post by Dr. Mendoza-Denton on Psychology Today discusses Vivian Zayas's research on the impact of psychological abuse in past romantic relationships on people's future relationship choices.
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• Cornell Chronicle newspaper features Vivian Zayas's latest research on the effects of maternal attachment.
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• Miller-McCune article features Vivian Zayas's latest research on the effects of maternal attachment.
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• Vivian Zayas presenting a talk titled "I like you but I don't know why: Facial resemblance to significant others and first impressions."
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• Vivian Zayas discusses close relationships, attachment, and personality on the radio.
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• Faculty profile of Vivian Zayas in the Cornell Chronicle newspaper.
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The overarching goal of Personality, Attachment, and Control (PAC) Lab is to examine the processes - those that are affective and automatic as well as those that are cognitive and controlled - that shape people's experiences within their closest and most significant relationships.
Given that many of these processes are occurring at an automatic and at times unconscious level, ongoing projects in the PAC Lab draw from research and theory from social and personality, cognitive, developmental and most recently cognitive neuroscience.
Some of the questions currently being explored are:
• How are close relationships mentally represented and how do these mental representations relate to subjective experience?
• To what extent are mental representations of relationships in adulthood shaped by early relationship experiences?
• How do individual differences in how people mentally represent relationships relate to neurophysiological processes?
• How do people shape the situations they encounter in the future, which in turn shapes them?