Being Liked is More than Having a Good Personality: The Role of Matching.

Is possession of desirable personality characteristics the only predictor that someone will be well-liked in a group of acquaintances, or will similarity to others in the group also matter? We tested participants (n=844) who had been randomly assigned to peer groups and had spent 6 weeks together. Participants assessed self and peer personalities in a round-robin design. We found that after controlling for attributions of desirable and undesirable personality characteristics, individuals with similar personality patterns liked each other more than individuals with dissimilar patterns. Further analysis revealed similarity of undesirable traits mattered more for liking than similarity of desirable traits. Results provide the first comprehensive analysis of relations between personality similarity and liking among acquaintances in a randomized, naturalistic design.

[1]  D. Christopher Dryer,et al.  When Do Opposites Attract? Interpersonal Complementarity Versus Similarity , 1997 .

[2]  T. Oltmanns,et al.  Personality and the derogation of others: Descriptions based on self- and peer report , 2003 .

[3]  Michael Monsour.  Communication and Cross-Sex Friendships Across the Life Cycle: A Review of the Literature , 1997 .

[4]  L. Cronbach.  Processes affecting scores on understanding of others and assumed similarity. , 1955, Psychological bulletin.

[5]  Linda A. Sapadin.  Friendship and Gender: Perspectives of Professional Men and Women , 1988 .

[6]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Examining the world of the depressed: do depressed people prefer others who are depressed? , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  Linda L. Carli,et al.  Similarity and Satisfaction in Roommate Relationships , 1991 .

[8]  B. Pelham,et al.  Name letter preferences are not merely mere exposure: Implicit egotism as self-regulation. , 2002 .

[9]  L. Cronbach,et al.  Assessing similarity between profiles. , 1953, Psychological bulletin.

[10]  Frank J. Bernieri,et al.  Measuring Person Perception Accuracy: Another Look at Self-Other Agreement , 1994 .

[11]  E. Plant.  Responses to Interracial Interactions Over Time , 2004, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[12]  R. McCrae,et al.  A Note on Some Measures of Profile Agreement , 2008, Journal of personality assessment.

[13]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. , 1977 .

[14]  Eric Turkheimer,et al.  Factorial structure of pathological personality as evaluated by peers. , 2003, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[15]  M. Zentner.  Ideal mate personality concepts and compatibility in close relationships: a longitudinal analysis. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  R. Furr.  A framework for profile similarity: integrating similarity, normativeness, and distinctiveness. , 2008, Journal of personality.

[17]  R. McCrae.  Agreement of Personality Profiles Across Observers. , 1993, Multivariate behavioral research.

[18]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Enhanced co-orientation in the perception of friends: a social relations analysis. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  B. Pelham,et al.  How do I love thee? Let me count the Js: implicit egotism and interpersonal attraction. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Depression and interpersonal attraction: the role of perceived similarity. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  Jaap J. A. Denissen,et al.  In the eye of the beholder: perceived, actual, and peer-rated similarity in personality, communication, and friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  Du Feng,et al.  Spouse similarity in attitudes, personality, and psychological well-being , 1994, Behavior genetics.

[23]  R. Horton.  Similarity and Attractiveness in Social Perception: Differentiating Between Biases for the Self and the Beautiful , 2003 .

[24]  J. R. Royce,et al.  Inheritance of avoidance behavior inMus musculus , 1974, Behavior genetics.

[25]  Frank J. Bernieri,et al.  Interpersonal Sensitivity : Theory and Measurement , 2001 .

[26]  Scott R. Beach,et al.  Exposure effects in the classroom: The development of affinity among students , 1992 .

[27]  Allan P. Jones,et al.  Competitiveness and the Similarity of Preferred Coworkers1 , 2002 .

[28]  R. Cohen,et al.  Race and sex as factors in children's sociometric ratings and friendship choices. , 1997 .

[29]  M. L. Cooper,et al.  Seventy years of research on personality and close relationships: substantive and methodological trends over time. , 2002, Journal of personality.

[30]  D. Byrne,et al.  Attraction and similarity of personality characteristics. , 1967, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[31]  N. Schwarz,et al.  Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver's Processing Experience? , 2004, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[32]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[33]  D. Funder,et al.  Profiting from controversy. Lessons from the person-situation debate. , 1988, The American psychologist.

[34]  Grace Kao,et al.  Do Race and Ethnicity Matter Among Friends? Activities among Interracial, Interethnic, and Intraethnic Adolescent Friends , 2004 .

[35]  T. Oltmanns,et al.  Meta-perception for pathological personality traits: Do we know when others think that we are difficult? , 2005, Consciousness and Cognition.

[36]  D. Watson,et al.  Match makers and deal breakers: analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. , 2004, Journal of personality.

[37]  Dan Ariely,et al.  Selective Versus Unselective Romantic Desire: Not All Reciprocity Is Created Equal , 2007, Psychological science.

[38]  R. Zajonc.  Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. , 1968 .

[39]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  Expect the unexpected: failure to anticipate similarities leads to an intergroup forecasting error. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[40]  Gérard Lemaine.  Social differentiation and social originality , 1974 .

[41]  A. Caspi,et al.  Two personalities, one relationship: both partners' personality traits shape the quality of their relationship. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  The measurement of interpersonal sensitivity: Consideration of design, components, and unit of analysis. , 2001 .

[43]  G. A. Mendelsohn,et al.  Partner Selection for Personality Characteristics: A Couple-Centered Approach , 1998 .

[44]  Dc Washington.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed. , 1994 .

[45]  T. Tracey,et al.  An examination of the complementarity of interpersonal behavior. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[46]  Beatrice Rammstedt,et al.  Only the congruent survive – Personality similarities in couples , 2008 .

[47]  Eric Turkheimer,et al.  Perceptions of Self and Others Regarding Pathological Personality Traits. , 2006 .

[48]  D. Stapel,et al.  The self salience model of other-to-self effects: integrating principles of self-enhancement, complementarity, and imitation. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  M. McPherson,et al.  Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks , 2001 .

[50]  J. Krueger,et al.  Liking persons versus liking groups: a dual‐process hypothesis , 1998 .

[51]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Measuring similarity in couples , 1994 .

[52]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Interpersonal Perception: A Social Relations Analysis , 1988 .

[53]  Shanhong Luo,et al.  Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: a couple-centered approach. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  M. Ashton,et al.  Similarity and assumed similarity in personality reports of well-acquainted persons. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[55]  Donn Byrne,et al.  Effect of economic similarity-dissimilarity on interpersonal attraction. , 1966 .

[56]  S. Vazire.  Informant reports: A cheap, fast, and easy method for personality assessment , 2006 .

[57]  Heather M. Claypool,et al.  Familiar eyes are smiling: On the role of familiarity in the perception of facial affect , 2007 .

[58]  M. Brewer.  The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time , 1991 .

[59]  Thomas Bradbury,et al.  INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Similarity, Convergence, and Relationship Satisfaction in Dating and Married Couples , 2007 .

[60]  J. E. Kurtz,et al.  Relationship quality, trait similarity, and self-other agreement on personality ratings in college roommates. , 2003, Journal of personality.

[61]  I. Ajzen.  Effects of information on interpersonal attraction: similarity versus affective value. , 1974, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[62]  B. Pelham,et al.  Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: implicit egotism and major life decisions. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.