Attitude similarity, relational history, and attraction: The mediating effects of kinesic and vocal behaviors

Abstract

Perhaps the most well‐known finding in the study of interpersonal relations is that attitude similarity leads to attraction. Recent research has found that the similarity‐attraction effect is diminished after informal social interaction. The mediating effects of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in attenuating or strengthening the effects of similarity on attraction have not themselves been studied. The present experiment tests the similarity‐attraction relationship in a conversational setting while investigating the effects of kinesic and vocal behaviors as mediators. Forty dyads, with similar and different attitudes who were newly acquainted or well known to one another, participated in 30 minute, non‐directed conversations. Their conversations were videotaped and coded for several vocal and kinesic indicators of involvement. After taping, subjects filled out attraction and satisfaction measures. Analyses revealed that attitude similarity affected attraction and satisfaction, even after an intervening interaction. Attitude similarity affected posture and orientation as well as similarity in gaze and adaptors; relationship stage affected vocalizations and discrepancies between partners’ speech rate and posture behaviors. Finally, it was found that senders’ smiling, speech rate, and postural orientation explained variance in partner attraction and satisfaction beyond that due to initial attitude similarity‐dissimilarity; certain measures of behavioral similarity accounted for attraction and satisfaction outcomes, reducing the effects of attitude similarity.