The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness
Elliot Aronson, Ben Willerman and Joanne Floyd played 48 male students a tape of a quiz applicant who was either brilliant or average, with or without a coffee-spilling blunder. Likeability scores were 30.2 for the brilliant contestant who blundered against 20.8 without, and minus 2.5 for the average contestant who blundered against 17.8 without. The drop for the average contestant was statistically reliable; the rise for the brilliant one was not on its own.
Elliot Aronson, Ben Willerman and Joanne Floyd played 48 male students a tape of a quiz applicant who was either brilliant or average, with or without a coffee-spilling blunder. Likeability scores were 30.2 for the brilliant contestant who blundered against 20.8 without, and minus 2.5 for the average contestant who blundered against 17.8 without. The drop for the average contestant was statistically reliable; the rise for the brilliant one was not on its own.
Written from the full text read 2026-10-11.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
doi:10.3758/BF03342263. Full text read: 48 male students; superior with pratfall 30.2, without 20.8; average without 17.8, with pratfall -2.5; the rise for the superior contestant was not significant on its own.