500 Days of Summer is a story where a boy meets a girl, falls in love with her but she doesn't really love him. The film shows the progression of Tom and Summer's relationship. It begins when they first meet when Summer starts working as a secretary where Tom works and progresses to casually dating them. Summer is obviously hesitant and averse to relationships, but Tom is overly eager to find the perfect girl. The story ultimately shows the end and consequences of their relationship. At first glance anyone would think that this is your typical love story where the movie casually progresses to happily ever after. This isn't that kind of fairytale love story. One of the main reasons why Tom and Summer are able to care and be attracted to each other is due to their close proximity. They work at the same job, which means they will spend more time together and have more interactions. The proximity effect tells us that the more time a person spends with someone, and the more interactions they have, can lead to a greater chance of that person having a closer relationship with us. The immediate and initial attraction Tom has for Summer is purely aesthetic. He knows nothing about her other than that she has the ideal characteristics associated with Tom's opinion of what is physically attractive. The fact that they have similar aspects to each other could be another aspect of the attraction. They both have dark brown hair, are close to each other in height, and have a similar build and build. Since studies conducted by Mackinnon, Jordan, and Wilson in 2011 showed that people become close to others who have similar characteristics and appearances to them, this has a strong possibility of being a... middle of paper... ... .as an interest for him. He is trying to repeat the action and circumstances to achieve the result and happiness he once had in the past. Although they don't end up together at the end of the story, I believe this is the perfect example of the social exchange theory of the male protagonist's point of view. The increased social interaction he shares with his love interest is his reward, simply because his goal is to have more contact with her and ideally have her fall in love with him and live happily ever after. References Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., & Akert, R.M. (2013). Interpersonal attraction. Social psychology (8th ed., pp. 267-297). Boston: Pearson.Emerson, E.M. (1976) Social exchange theory. Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 2 (pages 335-362)Annual reviews. Retrieved from http://umsl.edu/~keelr/3210/resources/emerson_social_exchange.pdf