When it comes to attraction, romantic or not, the similar-to-me effect states that we get along with people who look, think, feel, and act like we do (Nelson, 2018). Personally, I definitely see that in nearly every friendship that I have. When it comes to relationships, it hasn’t always been like that though. Dating someone who was the opposite did result only in a short-term relationship and I don’t recall dating someone who was exactly like me. However, when it comes to friendships, most of my friends do at least think like I do. We share the same views and opinions, for example, so we tend to get along most of the time.
I think that this can also be applied to bullying in a way, as in you connect to those with similar experiences. I survived bullying, and in some ways sometimes deal with it to this day, and I do see myself connecting with other people who have gone through the same thing. Over the years I have become friends with many people who have had similar experiences that have changed their lives and realizing that we all pretty much think and feel the same about specific things has brought us closer together. However, I don’t think that the similar-to-me effect has to be there all of the time in order for real friendships to form. You can be friends with someone who isn’t exactly like you, or have a romantic relationship with someone who’s different, but some differences do tend to get in the way in the end and cause problems. Diversity is a very good thing, and there is a lot of it in my personal life, but I have to agree that deeper relationships form when you are similar (same culture, background, etc.).
References
Nelson, A. (2018). Lesson 12 Relationships/Every day life, Attraction. Retrieved November 8, 2018. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942493/modules/items/25002553
Tags: #AppliedSocialPsychology, bullying, similar-to-me-effect
One thing that I connected with during your post was the tendency to make friends with people who have had similar experiences in the past, especially the negative ones. Many of my friends have experienced the same things that I have and I believe that in a way we are creating a form of a support group. By being able to relate to past misfortunes/negative experiences of the friend group we are able to effectively comfort and be there for one another. I also appreciated that in your post that you brought the psychology behind attraction to extend to more than just romantic relationships, which is often overlooked. Your post showed that you have a firm understanding of the class content and you did an incredible job conveying that.