Attitudes and attraction: A test of two hypotheses for the similarity-dissimilarity asymmetry

Recent studies reported a greater effect of attitudinal dissimilarity than similarity on interpersonal attraction. Hypotheses of (1) person positivity bias and (2) a greater weighting of attitudinal dissimilarity than similarity for such an asymmetry were tested. Extravert (N = 90) and introvert (N = 90) college students in Singapore indicated their social and intellectual attraction towards a dissimilar or similar stranger. Attraction responses were also obtained in a control condition of no-attitude information. As predicted, extraverts showed a higher person positivity bias in the control condition and hence a greater rejection of the dissimilar stranger than did introverts. Dissimilarity also resulted in a more negative social than intellectual attraction. Taken together, these results put the similarity-dissimilarity asymmetry on a firm ground. More important, they show (a) that extraversion affects the asymmetry via the person positivity bias, and (b) that weight of dissimilar attitudes depends upon the kind of attraction responses solicited. Reasons for the similarity-dissimilarity symmetry, instead of the asymmetry, in past attitudes-and-attraction research are discussed.