You Validate Me , You like Me , You ’ Re Fun , You

The proposition that similarity breeds attraction has received longstanding theoretical and empirical support. Still, the processes that guide this effect remain relatively unexamined. In this study, with a large sample of college students, we tested four variables proposed in prior literature to theoretically account for the similarity-liking link: consensual validation, certainty of being liked, enjoyment of the interaction, and self-expansion. Similarity was correlated positively with all four mediator variables; likewise, all four mediators individually predicted liking in addition to uniquely carrying the indirect effect between similarity and liking. These results provide insight into the processes behind the similarity-liking link.