Being Liked is More than Having a Good Personality: The Role of Matching.

Is possession of desirable personality characteristics the only predictor that someone will be well-liked in a group of acquaintances, or will similarity to others in the group also matter? We tested participants (n=844) who had been randomly assigned to peer groups and had spent 6 weeks together. Participants assessed self and peer personalities in a round-robin design. We found that after controlling for attributions of desirable and undesirable personality characteristics, individuals with similar personality patterns liked each other more than individuals with dissimilar patterns. Further analysis revealed similarity of undesirable traits mattered more for liking than similarity of desirable traits. Results provide the first comprehensive analysis of relations between personality similarity and liking among acquaintances in a randomized, naturalistic design.