Patient preferences for psychological counsellors: Evidence of a similarity effect

This study sought to examine the individual difference variables that affect potential patient preferences for hypothetical psychological counsellors. A representative British sample of 257 adults indicated their preferences for eight psychological counsellors differentiated by sex, age, and training location. A five-way mixed analysis of variance (participant sex and age as within variables, and counsellor sex, age, ethnicity as between variables) indicated a significant main effect for only counsellors’ ethnicity. There were also sex and age interactions showing evidence of a matching hypothesis: participants preferred counsellors of their own sex and age. The implications of these findings are considered.