Is actual similarity necessary for attraction? A meta-analysis of actual and perceived similarity

By R. Montoya, Robert S. Horton, Jeffrey L. Kirchner. 2008

799 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b7bbe74b56ee993e75a5ed2ecdf09d8879de0056

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In Clinical Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Perceived, not actual, similarity predicts initial attraction in a live romantic context: Evidence from the speed-dating paradigm (2013, methodology): “Previous research has shown that actual similarity successfully predicts outcomes in developing relationships and marriages (Karney & Bradbury, 1995; Luo et al., 2008; Luo & Klohnen, 2005; cf. Montoya et al., 2008).”
Toot Your Own Horn? Leader Narcissism and the Effectiveness of Employee Self-Promotion (2018, methodology): “First, as noted, research has established similarity between individuals as a robust predictor of favorable judgments in interpersonal relations (e.g., Montoya et al., 2008).”
Identifying Opportunities for Valuable Encounters: Toward Context-Aware Social Matching Systems (2015, background): “Researchers have also explored the difference between perceived and actual similarity and found that perceived similarity is more important than actual similarity [Montoya et al. 2008].”
A meta-analytic investigation of the processes underlying the similarity-attraction effect (2013, methodology): “…is consistent with previous & Davis, 1965), and several theorists have gone farther to specifically posit that it is the reduced salience of the similarity/dissimilarity information that reduces similarity’s impact outside of the laboratory setting (Montoya et al., 2008; Sunnafrank, 1992).”
Differentiating and Assessing Relationships in Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: Exploitative, Transactional, or Transformational. (2010, background): “Montoya, Horton, and Kirchner (2008) found in a meta-analysis of research in the field of interpersonal attraction that perceived similarity was a significant correlate of attraction across a wide range of relationship types (e.g., limited interactions, shortterm relationships, existing…”
Relationship interdependence and satisfaction with important outcomes in coach–athlete dyads (2012, background): “Whilst such actual similarity has been evidenced over the years, Montoya, Norton, and Kirchner (2008) have recently explained that it is perceived similarity that is more likely to be important to longer-term relationships than actual similarity.”
Creating Birds of Similar Feathers: Leveraging Similarity to Improve Teacher-Student Relationships and Academic Achievement. (2015, background): “The theory behind the promise of this approach is that interacting with similar others supports one’s sense of self, one’s values, and one’s core identity (Montoya et al., 2008; Myers, 2015).”
The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling: How Role Models Influence Role Aspirants’ Goals (2015, background): “Similarity has been found to predict likability in a number of contexts, ranging from romantic attraction (Byrne, 1997; Montoya, Horton, & Kirchner, 2008) to formal mentor-mentee relationships (Lankau, Riordan, & Thomas, 2005).”
Relational regulation theory: a new approach to explain the link between perceived social support and mental health. (2011, background): “Yet the link between similarity and relational regulation should be complex (cf. Montoya, Horton, & Kirchner, 2008).”