Similarity of Self-Esteem and Attraction

Summary

In order to test similarity-dissimilarity from a consistency perspective a 3 (high, medium, and low subject self-esteem) × 3 (high, medium, and low stimulus person self-esteem) experiment was performed investigating how self-esteem affects liking. It was hypothesized that low self-esteem subjects would be least attracted to low self-esteem others. Sixty college students were divided into three levels of self-esteem on the basis of self-evaluation scores and were provided with self-report responses of a stimulus person. The results revealed that low self-esteem subjects liked high and low stimulus others significantly more than neutral stimulus others. The possibility exists that both a consistency and similarity effect are operating in low self-esteem subjects.