Citation

Heine SJ, Foster JAB, Spina R. Asian J. Soc. Psychol. 2009; 12(4): 247-258.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01289.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Three experiments explored the similarity-attraction effect (SAE) among North American and Japanese samples. In all studies, North Americans showed a significantly more pronounced SAE than the Japanese. The North Americans consistently revealed a strong SAE whereas the Japanese effect was only significant in the methods with the most power. The cultural differences emerged across different methods, and for the domains of personality, activities, attitudes and demographics. The cultural difference was mediated by self-esteem, indicating that a motivation for positive self-views is a mechanism underlying the SAE.