Some social psychologists have found support for the idea that “similarity leads to attraction” while others have found in their research that there seems to be wisdom in the old saying, “opposites attract.”

Recruit a few people to complete the similarity leads to attraction version below and a few different people to complete the opposites attract version below. Compare your subjects’ ratings and examine whether both of these conflicting statements are rated to be true. Take a picture of your collected results and write a blurb about your findings.

This exercise serves to illustrate that, despite the intuitive appeal of common sense ideas, you should be careful in wholeheartedly accepting them.

Similarity leads to attraction

Social psychologists have found in their research that there seems to be wisdom in the idea of “similarity leads to attraction.”

In a sentence or two, why do you suppose this is true?

Does this finding seem surprising to you?

___yes

___no

Opposites attract

Social psychologists have found in their research that there seems to be wisdom in the old saying, “Opposites attract.”

In a sentence or two, why do you suppose this is true?

Does this finding seem surprising to you?

___yes

___no

Visual artifact ideas: include a snapshot of your results; a photograph of you collecting your data; a picture that represents birds of a feather flock together or opposites attract; or a verse to a song lyric (e.g., Paula Abdul’s Opposites attract or Lana Del Rey’s Brooklyn Baby: “I think we're like fire and water, I think we're like the wind and sea, You're burning up, I'm cooling down, You're up, I'm down, You're blind, I see…”

Visual artifact idea: