An exploratory comparison of close intracultural and intercultural friendships

The argument presented in this paper is that one major focus of research in intercultural communication should be upon extending findings and theorizing from interpersonal (intracultural) communication to intercultural settings. After the literature on friendships was reviewed, two exploratory studies were designed to compare close intracultural relationships with respect to perceived similarity and social penetration. Data from the two studies suggest that when close intracultural and intercultural relationships are contrasted, thier patterns with respect to perceived similarity and social penetration are somewhat parallel. The results of the two studies are discussed in terms of their consistency with previous research on similarity and attraction, social penetration, and interpersonal relationship development.

Key concepts:

• Attraction
• friendships
• intercultural friendships
• intracultural friendships
• intercultural interpersonal penetration
• intracultural interpersonal penetration
• intercultural similarity
• intracultural similarity
• similarity
• self‐disclosure
• social penetration