Summary: Vapor pressures above the solutions of polystyrene in either cyclohexane (32–60 °C) or toluene (10–70 °C) have been measured by a combination of head space sampling and gas chromatography as a function of the volume fraction φ of the polymer. The thus obtained Flory‐Huggins interaction parameters χ (φ; T) were complemented by data for three other systems (tert‐butyl acetate/polystyrene, cyclohexane/poly(vinyl methyl ether), 2‐propanol/poly(butyl methacrylate)) reported in the literature and analyzed in terms of their enthalpy and entropy parts χH and χS. Furthermore these experimental findings were modeled by means of an approach splitting the mixing process conceptually into two parts and leading to the expression χ = χfc + χcr. The first step takes place at fixed conformation of the components and yields χfc; equilibrium is reached in the second step, during the conformational relaxation, contributing χcr. The results demonstrate that mixing can either be driven enthalpically or entropically. By contrast the conformational response acts in all cases towards homogeneous mixing. The inversion of heat effects observed for two of the five systems can be well modeled in terms of the composition dependence of the enthalpy parts of χfc and χcr.Composition dependence of the enthalpy part, χH, of the Flory‐Huggins interaction parameter, and of the heat effects associated with the dilution in two steps.magnified imageComposition dependence of the enthalpy part, χH, of the Flory‐Huggins interaction parameter, and of the heat effects associated with the dilution in two steps.