Familiarity does indeed promote attraction in live interaction.

Abstract

Does familiarity promote attraction? Prior research has generally suggested that it does, but a recent set of studies by Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2007) challenged that assumption. Instead, they found that more information about another person, when that information was randomly selected from lists of trait adjectives, using a trait evaluation paradigm, promoted perceptions of dissimilarity and, hence, disliking. The present research began with the assumption that natural social interaction involves contexts and processes not present in Norton et al.'s research or in the typical familiarity experiment. We theorized that these processes imply a favorable impact of familiarity on attraction. Two experiments are reported using a live interaction paradigm in which two previously unacquainted same-sex persons interacted with each other for varying amounts of time. Findings strongly supported the "familiarity leads to attraction" hypothesis: The more participants interacted, the more attracted they were to each other. Mediation analyses identified three processes that contribute to this effect: perceived responsiveness, increased comfort and satisfaction during interaction, and perceived knowledge.

Does familiarity breed contempt or liking? Comment on Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, and Finkel (2011).

“…We could not agree moreyet, we also disagree strongly with the implication of their claim that their paradigms do in fact capture "natural social interaction." We would have guessed that if Reis et al (2011) were trying to examine natural social interactions, they would not have used a laboratory paradigm in which undergraduates alternated answering questions designed to promote relationship closeness (Study 1), or a paradigm in which undergraduates do not even meet face-to-face but chat via the Internet. Indeed, the task used in Study…”

“…We were both pleased and displeased to see the recent article by Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, and Finkel (2011) challenging the findings and account of our article (Norton, Frost, & Ariely, 2007)-pleased because it is always a compliment to have conducted research that irritated very smart people who we respect a great deal enough to want to follow-up on, but displeased because we believe that Reis et al have overstated the generalizability of their results and underreported other streams of literature that are in conflict with their account (reviewed below) and, even more, that Reis et al missed an opportunity to begin to construct an account that would integrate their findings, our findings, and the existing literature into a broader account of the link between knowledge and liking.…”

“…

Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, and Finkel (2011) conducted 2 studies that demonstrate that in certain cases, familiarity can lead to liking-in seeming contrast to the results of our earlier article (Norton, Frost, & Ariely, 2007). We believe that Reis et al (a) utilized paradigms far removed from spontaneous, everyday social interactions that were particularly likely to demonstrate a positive link between familiarity and liking and (b) failed to include and incorporate other sources of data-both academic and real-world-showing that familiarity breeds contempt.

…”

Sweet love

“…In this study, we examined a hypothetical or potential relationship, which is likely to be more uncertain than an established relationship. Hence, we expected that taste would create a subtle experience that uniquely affects perceptions of a novel or ambiguous relationship as compared to an established relationship.In addition, when making judgments in a romantic context, the judgments of nonestablished relationships may entail information processing that is relatively less elaborated and simpler (Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, & Finkel, 2011), arguably because the target of evaluation is more psychologically distant than would be the case when evaluating an actual relationship (cf. Trope & Liberman, 2010).…”

Analyst Behaviour: The Geography of Social Interaction

“…The theoretical foundation for this hypothesis is derived from recent evidence in the psychological literature. Reis et al (2011) found that individuals are more strongly attracted by individuals with whom they are more familiar. Translating this into the nancial context, this means that forecasts and recommendations of analysts working in the same country could appear more reliable, as these analysts might be perceived to be more familiar due to the same language or a similar background.…”