1988/12/01 by John E. Lydon, David W. Jamieson, Mark P. Zanna · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Cultural Differences and Values #Psychology #Similarity (geometry) #Interpersonal attraction #Impression formation #Social psychology #Trait #Personality #Preference #Inference #Interpersonal communication #Big Five personality traits #Interpersonal relationship #Interpersonal perception #Social perception #Social relation #Attraction #Perception #Statistics #Artificial intelligence #Mathematics
paper · doi:10.1521/soco.1988.6.4.269
openalex publication_date 1988/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The present research explores the relation between similarity, on the one hand, and interpersonal attraction and personality trait inference, on the other. The multidimensionality of these constructs was considered in terms of two general dimensions of first impressions, social and intellectual. In a 2 × 2 design, subjects were asked to form first impressions of a target person who was similar or dissimilar to them in terms of both attitudes and activity preferences. The results indicated that both attitude and activity preference similarity affected judgments of attraction. However, activity similarity was especially predictive of liking judgments, while attitude similarity was especially predictive of respect judgments. This differential effect was even more pronounced for the inference of personality traits. Activity preference similarity especially influenced inferences of socially desirable traits, while attitude similarity especially affected inferences of intellectually desirable traits. The implications of these results for inferential relations in impression formation are discussed, and potential moderators of such relations are considered.