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Do Birds of a Feather Always Flock Together?

  • Chapter
Uniqueness

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Social Psychology ((PSPS))

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Abstract

The introductory chapter provides a glimpse of the uniqueness-seeking phenomenon as revealed through literature. Based on such anecdotal evidence, it would seem that person-to-person encounters that result in self-perceptions of very high degrees of interpersonal similarity are likely to be a threat to a person’s sense of uniqueness. Therefore, one would expect such threats of very high similarity to be noxious and aversive. Yet, at first glance, the vast majority of research does not support this contention. A careful analysis of this body of research, however, reveals a more complicated picture in which the negative and positive outcomes of interpersonal similarity vary systematically accordingly to the conditions that pose a threat to a sense of uniqueness. The following sections examine the prevailing theories and research on interpersonal similarity. Furthermore, limitations to such research are described, and the possibility of uniqueness seeking is introduced in the context of a new research paradigm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

    C. R. Snyder

  2. York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada

    Howard L. Fromkin

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  1. C. R. Snyder
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  2. Howard L. Fromkin
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© 1980 Plenum Press, New York

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Snyder, C.R., Fromkin, H.L. (1980). Do Birds of a Feather Always Flock Together?. In: Uniqueness. Perspectives in Social Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3659-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3659-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-3661-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-3659-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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