Similarity Attraction Hypothesis: Griff the Invisible (2010)

griff_the_invisible_xlg Leon Ford’s Griff the Invisible (2010) reinforces the similarity attraction hypothesis: “individuals are most attracted to others who are similar to themselves.”¹ Griff (Ryan Kwanten) and Melody (Maeve Dermody) are attracted to each other because they are similar. Not only do they have the same personality type, but they also have the same passion in life: the desire to live in an alternate reality.

At the start of the film, Melody is dating Tim (Patrick Brammall), but she is not in love with him. This is because they are completely different people. She is an introvert; he is an extrovert. But when she meets Griff, it is attraction at first sight. She tells Tim that Griff is like her. They are both “odd” and have difficulty relating to other people.

Griff is attracted to Melody after discovering she has the same passion that he does. When she shares her belief in “parallel universes”, there is an immediate look of intimacy and understanding between them. As Gian Vittorio Caprara states, “people … with similar habits, attitudes, interests, and beliefs” can be attracted to each other “because those shared attributes reaffirm and validate one’s own.”² Melody and Griff are outsiders in society, but with each other they feel affirmed and validated. They fall in love, and she becomes his “sidekick.”

Two people with similar interests, beliefs, or attitudes don’t always fall in love, but similar people naturally gravitate toward each other. When we meet someone who is like us, we see a reflection of ourselves in that person. Griff and Melody find themselves in each other. With their ability to see what the other characters cannot see, they are soul mates.

Notes

Gian Vittorio Caprara et al., “When Likeness Goes with Liking: The Case of Political Preference.” Political Psychology 28, no. 5 (October 2007): 609, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20447072
Caprara, “When Likeness Goes with Liking,” 610.