Attitudes and Attraction: A Developmental Study of the Similarity-Attraction and Dissimilarity-Repulsion Hypotheses

Abstract

Contrasting predictions ofByrne's similarity-attraction hypothesis and Rosenbaum's dissimilarity-repulsion hypothesis were tested with 7-, 11-, 15-, and 21-year-olds in Singapore. The study included a control condition of no-attitude information and two experimental conditions of similar and dissimilar attitudes. Measures of attraction, assumed similarity of attitudes, and accuracy in perceiving the manipulations were taken. The repulsion hypothesis was supported with the two younger groups; the attraction hypothesis was supported with the two older groups. The repulsion effect emerged because the two younger groups assumed a high level of attitudinal similarity in the control condition of no-attitude information and because they inaccurately perceived the manipulated similarity of attitudes in the experimental conditions. These results reaffirm the similarity-attraction hypothesis and further demonstrate the role of age-related cognitive processes in interpersonal attraction.