INTERPERSONAL-ATTRACTION IN THE ABSENCE OF EXPLICIT ATTITUDINAL INFORMATION

An experiment was designed to investigate the role of perceived attitu dinal similarity in attraction toward a stranger about whom no explici t 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 subjec t in the session was either attitudinally similar or dissimilar to the m. They then expressed their perceived attitudinal similarity to the s tranger and their attraction toward the stranger. Analysis of variance revealed that baseline-control subjects expressed a level of attracti on equivalent to the level of attraction expressed by subjects in the attitudinal-similarity condition but higher than the level of attracti on expressed by subjects in the attitudinal-dissimilarity condition. M oreover, structural equation modeling revealed that differences betwee n the experimental groups and the baseline-control group could be acco unted for by perceptions of attitudinal similarity.