The effect of topic importance and attitude similarity-dissimilarity on attraction in a multistranger design

In a previous investigation, Ss attraction toward a stranger who expressed attitudes similar to or dissimilar from their own was found to be a function of similarity-dissimilarity but unrelated to the importance of the attitudinal topics. In the present investigation, a multistranger design was employed in that each of 40 Ss responded to four strangers who expressed similar or dissimilar attitudes about topics of differential importance. Proportion of similar attitudes was again found to have a highly significant effect on attraction while the effects of topic importance, order of presentation, and each interaction were not statistically significant.