The effects of attitude similarity, spatial relationship, and task difficulty on interpersonal attraction

Abstract

In a laboratory experiment, 80 females had their personal space occupied (in one of two spatial positions—near and far) by a female confederate who was either similar or dissimilar to the subject, while the subject was involved in either a difficult or leisure task. Regardless of task or spatial position, attraction responses were more positive toward similar than toward dissimilar confederates (p<.001). Regardless of task or proportion of similar attitudes, attraction responses were more positive toward confederates who sat very close to the subject than toward those who sat one seat away (p<.01). No attraction differences were found for the effect of the difficulty of the task.