Scientific Context of the Study
In striving to contribute to the scientific theories linking simi- larity and relationships, we structured the study to learn whether the causal associations between similarity and relationships found in laboratory studies generalized to real, ongoing relationships. Furthermore, if successful, our intervention would have important applications for classrooms. Specifically, it would offer a tangible example of how similarities might be leveraged to actually im- prove relationships in the classroom. Simultaneously, we hoped to evaluate the effects of our intervention as rigorously as possible in a naturalistic setting and to err on the side of being conservative in the inferences we made from our data.
We evaluated our intervention using a 2 2 design and focusing on multiple classrooms during a single class period. Through this design, each individual within every teacher–student dyad was ran- domly assigned to receive feedback (or not) from a “get-to-know- you” survey. Specifically, students were randomly assigned to either learn what they had in common with one of their teachers (i.e., students in the “student treatment” group), or not learn about similar- ities with their teacher (i.e., students in the “student control” group). Teachers found out what they had in common with about half of their students in the focal class (i.e., students in the “teacher treatment”
group) but not with the other half (i.e., students in the “teacher control” group). Thus, all randomization occurred at the student level.