Belief similarity and attitude similarity as determinants of interpersonal attraction

It was predicted that attraction would be a function of both attitude similarity and belief similarity, but that attitude similarity would have the greater influence. In Expt I, 60 subjects were presented with strangers that were either similar or dissimilar on attitude and on belief. Attraction was a positive function of both attitude similarity (p < .05) and belief similarity (p < .01). Experiment II replicated and extended Expt I with the addition of a 50% similar group for both attitude and belief. Attraction was a positive linear function of both attitude similarity (p < .001) and belief similarity (p < .02); departure from linearity was not significant. Attitude similarity also had greater effects on other aspects of interpersonal evaluation than belief similarity. The results were discussed in terms of the locus of reinforcement of attitude similarity and of belief similarity.     

Functional similarity and interpersonal attraction

A pair of related experiments examined the relationship of functional similarity (i.e., the degree of similarity between two interactants in assessing mutually known others on personal construct dimensions) to interpersonal attraction. In Experiment I, 10 previously unacquainted college students of both sexes participated in 10 hours of dyadic disclosure exercises over a 5-week period. As predicted, members of high functional similarity dyads evidenced greater attraction to one another than did members of low functional similarity dyads. Experiment II investigated the relationship of functional similarity to level of acquaintance (i.e., friends, nominals) and type of assessment (i.e., physical, interactional, psychological) in a 2 × 3 factorial design. As hypothesized, “friendship” pairs of male undergraduates displayed greater functional similarity than did “nominal” pairs from the same population, particularly at the deeper level of “psychological” assessment. Results are discussed in relation to classical conditioning (D. Byrne, In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 4. New York. Academic Press, 1969), affect-reinforcement (G. L. Clore, In S. W. Duck (Ed.), Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction. New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) and information processing ( I. Ajzen, In S. Duck (Ed.), Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction, New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) models of interpersonal attraction, and are interpreted as supporting and extending (S. Duck's Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction, New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) filtering theory of friendship formation.     

Racial stereotypes and interracial attraction: phenotypic prototypicality and perceived attractiveness of Asians

What does it take to find a member of a different race attractive? In this research, we suggest that for Whites, attraction to Asians may be based, in part, on stereotypes and variations in Asians' racial appearance. Study 1 reveals that Asians are stereotyped as being more feminine and less masculine than other racial groups-characteristics considered appealing for women but not for men to possess. Study 2 examines how variation in racial appearance, phenotypic prototypicality (PP), shapes the degree to which Asians are gender stereotyped and how PP relates to perceptions of attractiveness. Higher PP Asian men are perceived as being less masculine and less physically attractive than lower PP Asian men. These findings inform theory on how within-group variation in racial appearance affects stereotyping and other social outcomes.     

Self-esteem, attitude similarity, and attraction

Subjects evaluated three stimulus persons on several rating scales who were either 10%, 50%, or 90% similar to themselves in attitudes Subjects were divided into low, moderate, and high self-esteem groups on the basis of an earlier Q sort The results showed a strong positive relation between perceived similarity and positive attribution for each of the dependent variables, including liking, sophisticated, intelligent, sincere, happy, and a social distance scale A negative relation was obtained for two undesirable traits, arrogant and cynical Self-esteem interacted with similarity on several of the measures The difference between self-esteem groups was largely restricted to highly dissimilar stimulus persons Moderate esteem subjects were more favorable toward dissimilar persons than either of the other two groups, and the high and low groups tended to resemble each other more than either group resembled the moderate esteem group These results were discussed in terms of the relation between self-esteem and adjustment, and in terms of McGuire's (1968) theory that predicts a nonmonotonic relation between self-esteem and attitudes.     

Construct similarity, self-meaningfulness, and interpersonal attraction

Self-meaningfulness, a concept arising from personal construct theory research, has been defined in terms of the importance of the self in the personal construct system Forty-two undergraduate volunteers completed Repertory Grid ratings of the self and 15 individuals (five liked, five disliked, and five toward whom the subject was neutral) It was found that high self-meaningfulness individuals' ratings of attraction were more strongly associated with the perception of similarity than were the ratings of low self-meaningfulness subjects High self-meaningfulness subjects saw liked individuals as significantly more similar to the self than did low self-meaningfulness subjects In addition, liked, neutral, and disliked figures were seen as significantly different from one another on the similarity to self-measure for high self-meaningfulness subjects Only disliked figures were judged as more distant from the self for low self-meaningfulness subjects These findings were discussed in terms of the importance of investigating individual differences in similarity-attraction     

Empathy and the relationship between attitudinal similarity and attraction

Subjects varying in their levels of trait empathy encountered an attitudinally similar or dissimilar other. Replicating past research, subjects expressed much greater attraction for a similar rather than dissimilar other. Extending past research, the relationship between attitudinal similarity and attraction was much stronger among those having a strong rather than weak empathic tendency. Explanations, theoretical implications, and limitations are discussed.     

Interpersonal congruency,attitude similarity,and interpersonal attraction

To examine relationships among interpersonal congruency, attitude similarity, and interpersonal attraction, the present study required pairs of subject to rate their attraction to each other in response to two proportions of similar attitudes orthogonally varied with two treatments of interpersonal congruency. Findings showed that attitude similarity determined attraction when congruency was uncontrolled, but that similarity and attraction were unrelated within the two congruency treatments. Additional correlational analyses suggest that different judgments of the accuracy of other's perceptions of oneself accompany previous findings on attitude similarity and attraction, and it is proposed that interpersonal attraction may be understood in terms of stabilizing processes postulated by the theory of interpersonal congruency.     

Black-White Semantic Differences and interracial Communication1

In Phase I, black and white adolescent males made semantic differential ratings of 14 concepts representing a wide range of values. MOTHER, FATHER, GIRLS TV, GOD. POLICE. and NEXT YEAR yielded profiles significantly different for the 2 racial groups. In Phase II, 28 blacks and 28 whites each attempted to decode the profiles of 1 black and 1 white other. For combined racial groups, accuracy was greater when the other was semantically similar. Disregarding semantic similarity, accuracy was greater when the other was of the same race. Semantic similarity made little difference, however, when both encoder and decoder were black. Whites excelled in decoding the profiles of other whites where concepts were commonly encoded by both racial groups, while blacks were more accurate intraracially where concepts were differentially encoded by the 2 racial groups. Results were related to the assumption of a standard set of meanings for whites and a standard-nonstandard dual system for blacks.     

Depression and interpersonal attraction: the role of perceived similarity

We hypothesized that depressed individuals are generally viewed as dissimilar and that this perceived dissimilarity contributes to negative reactions to the depressed. In addition, we hypothesized that if perceived similarity affects liking of depressed individuals, then nondepressed subjects should prefer nondepressed targets, but depressed subjects should not share this preference. To test these hypotheses, depressed and nondepressed subjects received information about two targets, both either depressed or nondepressed, one attitudinally dissimilar and one attitudinally similar. They were then asked to fill out an attraction measure and an interest in meeting measure for each target. The results clearly supported the primary hypotheses, demonstrating that nondepressed subjects preferred nondepressed targets and perceived them as more similar than depressed targets, and that this preference for nondepressed targets is not shared by depressed subjects. Tests of supplementary hypotheses also confirmed that depressed subjects perceive their best friends as being more depressed and more dissimilar than do nondepressed subjects. The implications of these findings for the social world of the depressed were discussed.     

Applicant–employee similarity and attraction to an employer

Considerable research has supported the similarity–attraction effect, wherein similarity on various dimensions predicts interpersonal attraction. The present study extended this notion to workplace attraction, by examining whether applicant similarity to prospective co‐workers enhances attraction to the potential employer. Similarity between college‐aged women and prototypical employees at well‐known retail stores was assessed. Both perceived similarity and prototype similarity predicted perceptions of employer attractiveness. Although perceived similarity produced larger effect sizes, prototype similarity showed promise as an indirect measure of person‐to‐person fit.     

Some effects of attitudinal similarity and exposure on attraction and aggression

Previous research investigating the relationship of attraction and aggression has yielded somewhat equivocal results. The present study investigated the influence of two variables, attitudinal similarity and exposure, on interpersonal attraction and physical aggression. Fifty-four subjects received differential exposure to another individual and were later given information concerning this individual's attitudes. The subject's attraction toward the stimulus person was assessed followed by measures of aggression toward the stimulus person. Analysis of variance indicated that an attitudinally similar other was liked significantly more (p < .01) and aggressed against significantly less (p < .05) than an attitudinally dissimilar other. The exposure variable had no main effect on either attraction or aggression but interacted significantly (p < .05) with the attitudinal variable in producing differential attraction.     

Cross-lagged panel analysis of the relation between attraction and perceived similarity

Cross-lagged panel analyses of the relation between attraction and perceived similarity to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford were reported. The analyses were based on a panel of U.S. adults for 1972–1974–1976. The cross-lagged analysis involving Nixon was supportive of the causal flow being predominantly from attraction to perceived similarity. This conclusion was sustained in multivariate analysis. For ford, the cross-lagged correlations between attraction and perceived similarity were not significantly different. However, multivariate analyses suggested that the effect of attraction to Ford on perceived similarity to him remained significant even when numerous control variables were used. In contrast, the effect of perceived similarity to Ford on attraction to him was reduced to nonsignificance when controls were entered in regression analyses.