Horsham Zöe, Haydock-Symonds Ashleigh Nicola, Imada Hirotaka, Tai Hiu Ching, Lau Wing Lam, Shum Tsz Lui, Zeng Yuqing, Chow Hiu Tung Kristy, Feldman Gilad
University of Kent, Canterbury, England, UK.
Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, England, UK.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 Apr 30;12(4):250441. doi: 10.1098/rsos.250441. eCollection 2025 Apr.
Norton ., 2007, demonstrated a counterintuitive phenomenon that knowing other people better and/or having more information about them is associated with decreased liking. They summarized it as ambiguity leads to liking, whereas familiarity can breed contempt. In a Registered Report with a US Prolific undergraduate student sample ( = 801) we directly replicated Studies 1a, 1b and 2 and conceptually replicated Studies 3 and 4 from Norton ., 2007. Extending their research, we also proposed that curiosity provides an alternative path to liking, hypothesizing that curiosity mediates the relationship between knowledge and liking. Overall, we found weak support for the original findings. Consistent with the original article, participants believed they would like someone who they knew more about (original: = 0.52-0.70; replication: = 0.55-0.75) and that knowledge positively predicts liking (original: = 0.21-0.45; replication: = 0.57-0.76). However, we found no indication of the number of traits known influencing liking (original: -0.43 to -0.005; replication: = -0.05 to 0.06) or perceived similarity to the target ( = 0.00), for a mediating effect of perceived similarity, for a dissimilarity cascade effect, or for changes in liking or perceived similarity as a factor of learning more about the target. In our extensions, we found support for a positive relationship between curiosity and liking ( = 0.62-0.70), but not for knowledge and curiosity ( = -0.06 to 0.05). Overall, our findings suggest that learning more about others may not influence perceptions of liking, similarity or curiosity towards them. Materials, data and code are available on https://osf.io/j6tqr/. This Registered Report has been officially endorsed by Peer Community in Registered Reports: https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.rr.100947.
诺顿等人（2007年）证明了一个与直觉相悖的现象，即对他人了解得越多和/或掌握的关于他们的信息越多，反而会导致好感度降低。他们将其总结为模糊性会引发好感，而熟悉感可能滋生轻蔑。在一项针对美国大量本科生样本（N = 801）的预注册报告中，我们直接重复了诺顿等人（2007年）的研究1a、1b和2，并从概念上重复了研究3和4。在扩展他们的研究时，我们还提出好奇心为产生好感提供了一条替代路径，假设好奇心介导了知识与好感之间的关系。总体而言，我们对原始研究结果的支持力度较弱。与原始文章一致，参与者认为他们会喜欢更了解的人（原始研究：r = 0.52 - 0.70；重复研究：r = 0.55 - 0.75），并且知识能正向预测好感度（原始研究：r = 0.21 - 0.45；重复研究：r = 0.57 - 0.76）。然而，我们没有发现已知特质数量影响好感度的迹象（原始研究：r = -0.43至-0.005；重复研究：r = -0.05至0.06），也没有发现与目标对象的感知相似度（r = 0.00）、感知相似度的中介效应、差异级联效应，或者作为更多了解目标对象的一个因素的好感度或感知相似度变化的迹象。在我们的扩展研究中，我们发现好奇心与好感度之间存在正相关关系（r = 0.62 - 0.70），但知识与好奇心之间不存在这种关系（r = -0.06至0.05）。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，更多地了解他人可能不会影响对他们的好感度、相似度或好奇心的认知。材料、数据和代码可在https://osf.io/j6tqr/获取。这份预注册报告已得到预注册报告同行社区的正式认可：https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.rr.100947。
