When Two Individuals Share a Common Dislike For A Certain Person, It Brings Them Closer.

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Have you ever noticed that gossip is usually strongest around friends who are focused on one other person? That feelings of hatred shared over a certain subject usually attracts pairs? Ever heard the phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”? If not, the basic premise is that when two people share a mutual dislike of another person, then those two people will likely share a closer bond. Jennifer Boson of the University of South Florida studies social interactions among people, specifically she looks at the phenomena surrounding shared negative attitudes and how they seem to bond people together.

Boson found that people who have a third party that they could demean jointly, whether that be a classmate, celebrity, or even a song, then the bond between them could increase. However this research relied heavily on simple observation of friends. As such, another student, name Jonathan Weaver, designed an experiment in which undergrads were asked to fill out form about professors they either liked or disliked, followed by a questionnaire which asked about themselves. Once all the reports were tallied up, proctors would then give hand back the questionnaires to different participants while casually mentioning the like or dislike of certain professors. It was found that students who both shared negative impressions of professors felts more closely bonded to one another and claimed to know each other more then those who shared a positive impression.

This research suggests that antipathy (opposite of empathy) is a more powerful bonding experience when making new friends. This could be because this feeling is quiet universal in the sense that everyone has felt a dislike for another person at one point or another. Furthermore, researchers suggest that since the dislike of people is generally not accepted as something that ought to be shared, when you do bond over it, like in the study above, you are signalling a level of trust that you have with that other person. But why is the negative feeling stronger? Could you also not have the same impact by sharing something secretive and positive? Why are negative emotions so much stronger? Food for thought.

You can listen to my audio version here:

 

-Cassey

 

SOURCES

http://www.factrange.com/when-two-people-share-a-dislike-of-another-person-it-brings-them-closer/

http://www.succeedsocially.com/deepenfriendship

http://jezebel.com/5786516/hate-will-bring-us-together

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/shared-dislikes-2011-4/

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