Abstract
Similarity is a well-known contributor to attraction, but aesthetic preferences similarity in particular has not received much research attention. Study 1 was a correlational study with 54 couples from South Carolina and North Carolina. In these existing relationships, higher perceived relationship quality was found to be positively correlated with some measures of partner aesthetic preferences similarity. Study 2 was a “phantom other” experimental investigation of the effect of aesthetic preferences similarity on attraction to strangers involving 129 undergraduates at Indiana University East. It was found that manipulating music and movie rating similarity caused both platonic and romantic attraction to vary. Compared to a control condition, aesthetic preferences similarity enhanced attraction and dissimilarity decreased attraction, but the impact of dissimilarity was stronger. The results are discussed in terms of hypotheses about the relative importance of similarity and dissimilarity, and how aesthetic preferences similarity information could serve as a shortcut estimate of relationship compatibility and potential quality.
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