title: I feel like I know you: sharing negative attitudes of others promotes feelings of familiarity.
abstract: Holding similar negative-versus positive-attitudes toward a third party has been shown to predict increased closeness to a stranger. Here, the authors examined whether this effect is mediated by the heightened feelings of familiarity engendered by shared negative attitudes. In Study 1, participants who shared with a (bogus) stranger a negative attitude of a professor subsequently reported knowing more about the stranger than those who shared a positive attitude, but only when they did not feel strongly about the attitude. In Study 2, a familiarity manipulation produced high levels of closeness among participants who believed they had a lot of information about a stranger. Among those who believed they knew little about the stranger, closeness was facilitated by sharing a weakly held, negative attitude of a professor. Discussion considers the relevance of these findings to the interpersonal attraction literature.
authors.affiliation: University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. jrweaver@mail.usf.edu
authors.forename: Jonathan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.forename: Jennifer K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Bosson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013334:Students; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult