Familiarity indorses attraction because people believe that knowing about someone make one like them more than the individual one does not know. Conferring to Norton, Frost, and Ariely, understanding leads to attraction this is because; individuals’ take time to lure, communicate, and familiarize, thus leading to acquaintance development (Norton et al., 2007). Thus, the condition referred to as the “less is more” effect is as a result of the surging nature of variation. Once the distinction is evident, succeeding evidence is most likely understood as additional evidence of dissimilarity, causing a reduction in liking.
This research used models that are similar to the previous experiments on familiarity. In this sense, data was availed to the participants in a decontextualized manner. The classic study in this field is Beach and Moreland (1992). In this research, four female entered a classroom in a way that made them visible to other students either ten to fifteen times in the semester, and they never interacted with the students. Afterwards, the students were asked to rate the females, and it was concluded that the more often the confederate was seen by the students, the more she was rated positively and liked (Norton et al., 2007). Further studies have shown that the more frequently an individual is seen, the more they are rated positively and wanted to interact with him or her.
Conferring to Remscheid and Regan, familiarity is the most basic principle of attraction based on personal relations based on personal contacts. Unfortunately, Norton, Frost, and Ariely challenged this theory for the reason that; getting information about an individual tends to cause more of disliking than liking (Reis et al., 2011). In measuring familiarity and liking across individuals, the method used in this case was that the participants were to choose between two individuals. One whom they knew less about, and one that they knew more. After the study was conducted, it was concluded that; the participants expressed clear belief that they liked the individual whom they had more information, as compared to the person that they had less information about. This effect was consistent transversely in all accounts.
We can confidently strike sharp similarities between these sets of articles in the way by which they approach the discussion on individual perception. Like or dislike is generated by the principle of less or more we know about a person. In reality, the less we know about someone is actually more and can lead us to strike familiarity with them and thus; liking or disliking the person at the end of it all.
Reference
Norton, M. I., Frost, J. H., & Ariely, D. (2007). Less is more: The lure of ambiguity, or why familiarity breeds contempt. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(1), 97.
Reis, H. T., Maniaci, M. R., Caprariello, P. A., Eastwick, P. W., & Finkel, E. J. (2011). Familiarity does indeed promote attraction in live interaction. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(3), 557.
