Why Are You And Your Friends So Alike?

Happy March! I’m happy to announce that for this month I will be blogging about all things friendships! Following my survey and after talking with many of my peers on campus, I believe it would be extremely valuable if I could provide info and advice about how to better connect and befriend people at school.

    I would like to start with an anecdote that comes from my daily life. I had a conversation with a friend of mine of how similar in character one of my professors was to a professor that whom both of us took a course with. Turns out that these two professors are close friends. If you have ever taken a social psychology class, you would probably remember hearing that people tend to make friends with those that are similar to them. This can be explained by the concept of familiarity- we as humans do not like unpredictable things, thus we tend to associate with individuals that we can relate to. 

    Now, I’m sure that you’ve heard of the phrase “opposites attract”- but does that really hold true with friendships? An article from Business Insider lists similar brain patterns as a reason for why friends are similar to each other. The relevant study found that the same areas of the brain lit up when watching a certain clip. In fact, a group of friends could predict their friend’s responses to the clip without even looking at what they answered. Additionally, it has become an increasingly well-known belief that we might share the same DNA as some of our friends. Maybe that’s why some people mistake your friend for your sibling. 

 Yet, I’m sure if you know some of the basics of personality psychology, you would know that some personality traits are indeed rooted in genetics. So, the DNA perspective does not just extend to exterior traits. Perhaps you and your friend bonded over a certain kind of music, or are both very studious. Maybe you have similar hobbies.

   Now, how does this all relate to making friends at school? This may sound a bit cliché but joining a club that corresponds with your interests can help a bunch. Maybe begin to get to know people who have the same major as you a bit better. It may seem counter-intuitive to seek out people who are like us, but many of us don’t realize the psychology behind it. 

  What do you think about this reasoning? Do you agree with it? Tune in next week for another blog in relation to making friends and strengthening connections! 

Source: Business Insider