Attitude Similarity and Attraction to an Employee Group

Abstract

56 college students who had completed a Survey of Attitudes were presented a Survey of Employee Attitudes representing the attitudes of most of the people comprising a hypothetical work group, in which attitudes were portrayed as either 25% or 75% similar to their own. Subjects were then asked to express their attraction to and expectations of the employee group. The hypothesized effect of attitude similarity on attraction was confirmed for both liking and desire to be supervisor of the work group. In addition, the hypothesized effect of similarity of attitudes was confirmed for intelligence, personal adjustment, competence, quantity of work, quality of work, absenteeism rate, accident rate, rule violations, and self-motivation. The hypothesized effect was not confirmed for tardiness rate.