THE RELATIVE EFFECT OF ATTITUDE SIMILARITY AND ATTITUDE DISSIMILARITYON INTERPERSONAL-ATTRACTION - INVESTIGATING THE MODERATING ROLES OF PREJUDICE AND GROUP MEMBERSHIP

Heterosexual male undergraduates rated the interpersonal attractivenes s and perceived attitude similarity of heterosexual and homosexual tar gets who were either attitudinally similar ambiguous (i.e., no-attitud e-information controls), or dissimilar to the participant. The relativ e effect of attitude similarity and dissimilarity information on attra ction judgments was moderated by the perceiver's prejudice level but n ot by the target's group membership: Dissimilarity decreased low-preju dice (LP) individuals' attraction toward heterosexual and homosexual t argets. Conversely, similarity increased high-prejudice (HP) participa nts' attraction toward both targets. Dissimilarity also decreased HPs' attraction toward heterosexual targets. Attraction effects for LPs we re independent of perceived attitude similarity in the no-attitude con trol conditions and were more consistent with the person-positivity bi as. For HPs, judgments of homosexual targets were partially mediated b y perceived attitude dissimilarity Findings are discussed in the conte xt of the similarity-attraction principle, the repulsion hypothesis, a nd theories of intergroup discrimination.