Interpersonal Attraction in the Absence of Explicit Attitudinal Information

Abstract

An experiment was designed to investigate the role of perceived attitudinal similarity in attraction toward a stranger about whom no explicit information is provided. College students were provided with either no explicit information about another subject in the session (baseline-control condition) or with information indicating that another subject in the session was either attitudinally similar or dissimilar to them. They then expressed their perceived attitudinal similarity to the stranger and their attraction toward the stranger. Analysis of variance revealed that baseline-control subjects expressed a level of attraction equivalent to the level of attraction expressed by subjects in the attitudinal-similarity condition but higher than the level of attraction expressed by subjects in the attitudinal-dissimilarity condition. Moreover, structural equation modeling revealed that differences between the experimental groups and the baseline-control group could be accounted for by perceptions of attitudinal similarity.