People prefer to make friends with others who share their beliefs, values, and interests. People have more choices, their friends are more the same, according to research published in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (published by SAGE).
People are not looking for identical twins, but they find common ground because it makes for a smoother, more pleasant interaction. When people have choices, and most Americans, they find friendships and romantic relationships with people who share their attitudes, religious beliefs, and politics. But what happens when they have less choice? Are people being forced to "make do" with less than perfect matches, and their friendship is satisfactory?
Angela Bahns from Wellesley College and Chris Crandall and Kate Pickett of the University of Kansas compared to universities in the Midwest with a small enrollment (an average of about 500 students) with a college with more than 25,000 students. Researchers approached the pairs of students interacting in public, and asked them questions about their attitudes, beliefs, and health behaviors.
In almost every attitude and behavior were measured, the friends of the campus that is more similar to each other than my friends a small campus. This may be because the people from their large campus feel more choice, and that they can more easily switch friends than students from a small campus.
Although friends of the campus is more similar to each other, small-campus students rated their friendship closer than couples large campus. The same campus on how long people have been friends and on how much time they spent together.
"People prefer to make friends with other people similar to them, but one can only choose among the available. Alternative-people are much more likely to meet their specific needs groceries at the supermarket than the store," wrote the researchers. "The irony of this situation is that as a setting to get more and more diverse, friendships become more homogeneous."
No comments:
Post a Comment