Similarity and social interaction: when similarity fosters implicit behavior toward a stranger.
People interact more readily with someone whom they think they have something in common with. At a pedestrian crossing, confederates asked participants for the time and, in one condition, said she/he had the same watch as the participant. The amount of time that participants lingered near a confederate was used as the dependent variable. Participants in the similarity condition spent significantly more time near the confederate than when no similarity was manipulated. The results showed that similarity fosters implicit behavior, adding to the growing body of data on the positive effects of similarity and its role in social interaction.
Université de Bretagne-Sud, LSHS, 4, Rue Jean Zay, BP 92116, Lorient 56321, France. nicolas.gueguen@univ-ubs.fr
Nicolas
N
Guéguen
Angélique
A
Martin
Sébastien
S
Meineri
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception