Attitude similarity, expectancy violation, and attraction

Diverse groups and information sharing: The effects of congruent ties

“…Heider (1958) suggested that people are also disturbed by agreement or support from disliked others, but Newcomb (1961) and Crano and Cooper (1973) presented evidence to the contrary. This is not surprising, because we know that people like others to agree with them in general (Jones & Wein, 1972), and are likely to find disagreement with those they dislike more tolerable than disagreement with those they like.…”

Interpersonal Attraction and Relationships

“…Information about another's similarity is frequently interpreted to mean that the other is likely to be benevolent (146,159,292,297), to be compati ble (303), or to have greater ability than a dissimilar other to provide rewards (42). The other's similarity also makes it seem more likely that he will like us in return (141, 150,153,179). Yet as Jones et al (150) argue from a pair of studies, direct information that the other likes one is probably far more infl uential than indirect inferences based on information about attitude similarity: in the first, but not in the second, of their imaginative laboratory studies, Jones et al showed that subjects were more repelled by a similar than by a dissimilar other who ostensibly disliked them.…”

Expectancy-Violation, Similarity, and Unexpected Similarity as Sources of Credibility and Persuasiveness

“…The present study provided a situation in which several previously demonstrated effects conflicted: enhancement of a communicator's effectiveness by similarity to his audience (2,3,5,27); enhanced persuasiveness of a communicator through his advocacy of an unexpected position (6,10,20,26), and increased attractiveness and credibility of a communicator who agrees unexpectedly with his audience, plus decreased attractiveness and credibility of a communicator who disagrees unexpectedly with his audience (9,24). While the results of this study were not unequivocal, they did suggest that enhancement of a communicator's credibility by his advocacy of an unexpected position is the dominant process.…”

“…Some studies suggest that unexpected agreement by a dissimilar communicator increases his attractiveness and credibility, while unexpected disagreement by a similar communicator has the opposite effect (9,24). While this has obvious implications for persuasiveness, we are not aware of studies that bear on them directly.…”