At one point in my life I read an article that talked about how our friends ultimately alter our own personalities, it went on to say that we each have the personality of our four closest friend’s personalities combined. I found this article rather interesting. Instead of researching this topic, however, I wanted to research how or why we choose the friends that we do. Ever since I can remember my friends have always been very similar to me, I tend to choose friends who have close to the same personality as I do. Is it just ironic that I choose to be friends with people who are like me, or does it have to do with something deeper?
One study I came across was conducted in Massachusetts. Scientists here studied 1,932 people. They were looking at each person’s genes. There results were very interesting in my opinion. They discovered that friends shared about 1% of their genes, this percentage is significantly larger than the percentage of genes shared between two strangers. Scientists are not really sure why the results turned out like this, however it could be due to a possible “kin detection system” in people. Olfactory genes seemed to line up the most, while immune system genes lined up the least. Scientists said that it made sense for the olfactory genes to line up because friends tend to enjoy similar smells.
This study was probably due to chance, in my opinion. Unless this “kin detection system” actually exists I doubt that we choose friends who have similar genes as us. 1,932 people were used, which isn’t necessarily small, but is not huge either. It would be really interesting to see this study conducted again, but with more people.
Another study I came across was done by Professor Peter DeScioli. He researched the online friendships through social media of 11 million people. MySpace, a social media website, has a section where people rank their “best friend”. His research found that people were more likely to rank somebody as their “best friend” if they knew that person would rank them back as their “best friend” as well. His findings support the “alliance hypothesis for friendship.” This hypothesis says that we depend on our friends during conflicts. We want to be friends with people we are positive will back us up in an argument. We want to strongly feel that the person we are calling our “best friend” will always side with us.
I also found this study to be very interesting. We base friendships off of security. We want to feel safe, we do so by forming friendships with people we know will support us in times of need. I feel that this study is correct, it used 11 million people, so it is highly unlikely that the results are solely due to chance. I can connect with this study because as self-fish as it sounds, I definitely pick friends I can depend on when I need them. I probably wouldn’t develop a strong friendship with somebody I couldn’t trust to back me up in argument when I needed them to.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/people-choose-friends-dna-similar-study-article-1.1867373
http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2011/march/friendship.html
Forgot to include the link in the last comment…. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/07/14/331354227/do-we-choose-our-friends-because-they-share-our-genes
This is an interesting topic because in my opinion, I don’t feel as if I “choose” my friends. I feel that it happens naturally and I become close with people who are similar to me just based on our interests and things in common. I think the experiments definitely have potential but the sample size is a bit large to conduct a concise study. I think in a smaller group of people/friends it would be easier to determine similar gene’s and if there is a true correlation between genes and forming friendships. With such a wide variety of people and gene’s, it is easy to just assume people with similar gene’s are friends rather than an established group of friends.
I think the first study is very interesting although I do not agree with something you said. 1932 people being used for the study is not small but also is a grey area; we aren’t certain whether this is a good amount of people or not so to say that is is a negative part of the experiment depends on the person conducting it. Another thing that I agree with is that people, including myself, choose friends who will support them and back them up but this study is only looking at MySpace which is very unrealistic. Social media is not an accurate depiction of people’s full lives so i believe it is superficial to say that MySpace is a good source of research.
This is an interesting topic to write about. I personally always felt like i chose friends who were very different from me. For instance, I’m quite quiet and shy and I’m not very social or outgoing, but my friends are. They love a good party and are so loud sometimes I think my ears will bleed. If I believed this study then it would suggest that I have more in common with my friends then I previously thought, and it got me thinking maybe I’m missing something. Anyway, thanks for the stimulating thought I’ll observe my friends this week and see if this study holds up.