Attitude similarity and interpersonal attraction in communication processes: In pursuit of an ephemeral influence

The present study focuses on a conception of the attitude similarity-attraction relationship based on communication processes. It extends the work of Sunnafrank and Miller on the similarity-attraction relationship in initial interactions to include later conversational stages involving attitudinal discussions. It is suggested that past studies of this relationship in early stages of acquaintanceship have employed highly atypical communicative processes in examining the influence of attitudinal discussions on attraction producing results of questionable generalizability. The results of this research indicate that the positive similarity-attraction relationship observed in most past studies will not generalize to normal communicative relationships in which attitudinal discussions take place when those discussions occur in the context of more typical communicative processes. Ramifications of this finding for the conventional scientific wisdom regarding the attitude similarity-attraction relationship are discussed.