Attitude topics were scaled for the potency of peer disagreement on the topics in affecting a person's sense of competence, and a measure to assess interpersonal attraction containing evaluative polar adjectives and behavioral intention items was devised. The scaled items were used to test predictions from the Byrne and Clore competence-reinforcement model of attraction. Subjects were shown attitudes of others which varied on number of topics exposed, potency of the topics, and proportion of agreements. Subjects recalled more disagreement than agreement topics (/><.001), illustrating the salience of disagreements in the situation. The number of topics was related to attraction (/><.05), supporting the reinforcement position in the attraction model; the potency effect (p < .02) supported motivational assumptions implicit in the model.
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