Imagine that you are creating an online profile of yourself. Would it be better to have a brief description or to provide a considerable amount of information about yourself? You may think it would be better to provide a great deal of information about yourself because it would make it more interesting. On the other hand, a significant number of people who read the profile may perceive that they are dissimilar to you. A briefer description may be less interesting, but it may also result in less perceived dissimilarity. Less perceived dissimilarity may lead to greater liking.
Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2007) proposed that there is a negative relationship between knowledge and liking. They found evidence in some studies that having more knowledge about a person can lead to less liking of the person. For example, in Study 5, some participants were asked to make judgments about a person they were going to go on a date with. Other participants in the study were asked to make judgments about a person they had recently gone on a date with. In Study 5, they found that the predate judgments of liking and similarity were higher, on the average, than the postdate judgments of liking and similarity. Also, in this study, predate judgments of knowledge about the person were lower, on the average, than postdate judgments of knowledge about the person. Thus, it is possible that greater knowledge about a person after a date leads to lower liking because the person is perceived to be less similar to oneself. (1)
Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2007) proposed that dissimilarity cascades as you gain more information. They found evidence supporting this idea. In Study 4, participants who indicated that the first trait of a person was dissimilar to themselves found fewer similarities in the next nine traits than participants who indicated that the first trait of a person was similar to themselves.
Having more knowledge about a person may not always lead to less liking.
Two persons who have much in common may increase their liking for each other as they gain more knowledge of each other. At first, they may not be aware of how similar they are. As they gain more knowledge about each other, perceived similarity may increase. The increase in perceived similarity could increase liking. Moreover, two persons who have been friends for a significant amount of time may learn to accept any perceived differences. Thus, gaining more knowledge about differences may not decrease liking for two persons who are good friends.
Notes
1. See their article for other findings.
References
Norton, M . I., Frost, J. H., & Ariely, D. (2007). Less is more: The lure of
Ambiguity, or why familiarity breeds contempt. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 92, 97-105.