Attraction Toward A Stranger As A Linear Function Of Similarity In Dress

A study was conducted to specify the mathematical relationship between similarity in dress and attraction. Two hundred undergraduate subjects judged, on a seven‐point scale, ten stimulus persons who were strangers to them. Each stranger wore a different form of dress. Judgments regarding the strangers dealt with the similarity between the dress worn by the stimulus person and the students' own usual dress, and two measures of attraction: the extent to which subjects would probably like the stranger, and would enjoy working with the stranger on schoolwork. Similarity in dress was found to be positively associated with attraction. A linear function was discovered whereby the most similar forms of dress were associated with the most attraction. This research serves to expand current conclusions regarding interpersonal attraction by including similarity in dress as a variable that influ ences it. This research also makes it possible to predict interpersonal attraction if the level of similarity in dress is known. Some practical applications are given for this research as well as suggested topics for future study regarding the relationship between interpersonal attraction and dress.