A theoretical analysis of observations of natural and man‐made disasters, festive social events, and task‐oriented crash programs led to a three‐factor hypothesis of attraction facilitation. It was proposed that interpersonal attraction toward strangers is facilitated when there is emotional arousal, sharing, and out‐of‐role behavior. In a laboratory investigation (N= 120), postexperimental attraction toward a dissimilar stranger increased when all three factors were present but not when only two of the three factors were present (p<.01). Consistent with the reinforcement‐affect model of attraction, increased attraction toward the stranger in the three‐factor conditions was paralleled by more positive feelings about the experiment in the three‐factor than in the two‐factor conditions. Knowledge of the variables underlying facilitation effects could be utilized on a societal basis to create attraction‐en