More Than Meets the Eye: Emotional Ability Similarity in Interpersonal Interactions

Abstract

The authors investigate emotional ability similarity to explain key outcomes in interpersonal interactions beyond the effects of traditional measures in the similarity-attraction paradigm. Three studies examine how and why similar ability for processing emotional information between two people promotes relational success and joint decision quality through facilitating effortless interactions. Study 1 uses dyadic longitudinal consumer– salesperson field data to demonstrate how emotional ability (EA) similarity facilitates customer loyalty, satisfaction, manifest influence, and positive word of mouth. In study 2, lab-based sales interactions demonstrate that resource depletion underlies these effects. In study 3, the conceptualization is extended to a joint decision-making task, finding that similar EA dyads made higher quality consumption decisions. Together, these findings advance theory on consumer relationships and social influence by establishing shared emotional processing as a new avenue for relational research.