Do birds of a feather universally flock together? Cultural variation in the similarity-attraction effect

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.