The influence of communicative competence on perceived task, social, and physical attraction

Although previous research has found that perceived attractiveness (especially physical attractiveness) is associated with perceptions of communicative effectiveness (Brandt, 1979; Chaiken, 1979; Zakahi & Duran, 1984), research has not been conducted to determine whether communicative competence influences perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness. The present study utilized a pretest‐posttest design with posttests of perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness serving as the dependent variables, and communicative competence as the independent variable, with the pretests of perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness as the covariates. Results indicated communicative competence accounted for 17%, 14%, and 8% of the variance in perceived task, social, and physical attractiveness, respectively. The discussion addresses the theoretical implications of these results.