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A number of recent studies have attempted to explore the bases for attraction between two people in sociometric choice situations Among the approaches to this problem, perhaps the most prominent involve detailed self-ratings and ratings of the others who are acknowledged to be friends. An obvious practical and theoretical question that arises in such studies is whether friends are chosen who are similar in various characteristics to the self, or whether there is a complementary relationship between the personality characteristics of self and friend. This is an issue not easily resolved, since whether similarity outweighs complementarily depends on the particular personality characteristics under investigation. A highly dominant person might value submissiveness in others but a religious person would tend to choose friends with similarly high religious values. The findings of W. R. Thompson and R. Nishimura, who obtained mutual and reciprocal ratings from eight pairs of friends, indicate a closer resemblance between the ideals of members of the pair than between the concepts of their real self.