# Does learning more about others impact liking them? Replication and extension Registered Report of Norton et al.’s (2007) lure of ambiguity

## TL;DR

This study replicates and extends a previous finding that more information about others may not decrease liking, and finds curiosity, not knowledge, is linked to liking.

## Contribution

The study provides a replication and extension of Norton et al. (2007), exploring curiosity as a mediator between knowledge and liking.

## Key findings

- Participants believed they would like someone they knew more about, but actual liking was not influenced by the number of traits known.
- Curiosity was positively related to liking, but knowledge did not predict curiosity.
- No evidence was found for the original effects of perceived similarity or dissimilarity cascade.

## Abstract

Norton et al., 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 (N = 801), we directly replicated Studies 1a, 1b and 2 and conceptually replicated Studies 3 and 4 from Norton et al., 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: h = 0.52–0.70; replication: h = 0.55–0.75) and that knowledge positively predicts liking (original: h = 0.21–0.45; replication: h = 0.57–0.76). However, we found no indication of the number of traits known influencing liking (original: r = −0.43 to −0.005; replication: r = −0.05 to 0.06) or perceived similarity to the target (d = 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 (r = 0.62–0.70), but not for knowledge and curiosity (r = −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.