Krithiga Sankaran

On the importance of trust in interpersonal attraction from attitude similarity

Trust has been identified as a key factor in relationship development and appreciation of group members. However, trust has not been previously considered as a reason for attitude similarity to result in attraction. Thus, in the current research, the authors investigated trust as a key component of attraction based on attitude similarity. Trust was shown to significantly mediate attitude similarity effects on attraction when measured alone (Experiment 1) and alongside positive affect in the participants (Experiment 2A), respect for the partner (Experiment 2B), or inferred partner’s attraction to the participants (Experiment 2C). Trust was also shown to have independent effects on attraction when juxtaposed with all three of the traditional mediators of attitude similarity effects (Experiment 3). Implications of these findings for models of attraction are discussed.

Attitude similarity and attraction: Validation, positive affect, and trust as sequential mediators

Effectance motivation—an urge for certainty and a feeling of being able to know, predict, and control ones environment—was initially proposed as the mechanism underlying attitude similarity effects on attraction. However, this motivation was discarded as an explanation when positive affect was identified. The presence of alternative mechanisms did not deny a role for the validation of attitudes in attraction. Therefore, we investigated the validation of ones views by those of peers as an additional mediator and its relation with two previously known mediators of positive affect and trust. As hypothesized, validation mediated attitude similarity effects when measured alone (Experiment 1) and within sequential mediation patterns involving positive affect (Experiment 2A) and trust (Experiments 2B and 2C).

Causal role of trust in interpersonal attraction from attitude similarity

The most popular method for investigating the mediation of the similarity-attraction link by trust involved first the manipulation of attitude similarity between the partner and the participant and then assessments of trust before attraction. Such correlational data precluded unambiguous inferences of causal flow of attitude similarity effects from trust to attraction. In the present study, we experimentally manipulated attitude similarity first and trust in the partner next, and measured trust in, and attraction toward, the partner after each manipulation. We found that similarity’s impact on trust remained stable over time but that on attraction declined substantially from the first to second assessment. Mediation analyses and structural equation modeling were consistent with a model in which causality flowed from attitude similarity to trust and then to attraction but not from attraction to trust. Findings also suggested that similarity can be expected to be secondary (or even redundant) when trust is already established.

Positive affect as a moderator of liking effects on trust and attraction

Attitude similarity effects on attraction appear to be mediated sequentially by positive affect, inferred attraction, and trust. That is, the first two supposedly distal mediators influence each other in building trust, a mediator proximal to attraction. However, the correlational nature of data reported heretofore precludes definitive conclusions about sequential dependency between the two distal mediators. In the research reported, therefore, the authors manipulated positive affect in the participants (Time 1) and liking of the partner for them (Time 2), and measured trust before attraction. As predicted, liking effects on trust and attraction were stronger when positive affect in the participants was high than when it was low. Importantly, the interaction effect in trust fully mediated the interaction effect in attraction.