Infatuation and Attraction to a Dissimilar Other: Why is Love Blind?

Abstract

The present experiment attempted to increase understanding of the "love is blind" phenomenon. White male American undergraduates exposed to an infatuation induction with an attitudinally dissimilar female confederate showed greater attraction to her than unexposed control subjects. The use of a misattribution-of-arousal manipulation eliminated this difference in attraction between the infatuation induction and control groups, thereby providing support for the role of positive emotional arousal in creating attraction toward the dissimilar other in the infatuation condition. Evidence was also found that suggested that attraction toward the dissimilar other was based not on a distortion by the subjects of her dissimilar attitudes, but rather on a more favorable evaluation of these attitudes.