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How to make friends 101 – Network Theory          

How to make friends 101 – Network Theory

It is perhaps intimidating to approach a new person, especially when you want to make friends. In this article, the author suggests a few tactics to make new friends, based on some theories. Chameleon effect explains that people liking someone who is similar to them – thus, mimicking the person that one wants to be friends with would help. Mere-exposure effects suggests that people feel closer to things that they encounter more often. For instance, if one shares a lot of classes with another, it is likely that they will become friends. Spontaneous trait transference refers to the condition in which if you compliment others, people will associate the good personalities you use to describe others with you – thus, making you more likeable after all!

Last but not least, a social-network theory advises you to make friends with the friends of the person with whom you want to be friends. The article makes reference to the triadic closure property that two people with a common friend are likely to become friends. In a research done by the University of British Columbia, it was demonstrated that people were more likely to accept friend request as they have more mutual friends. Without any mutual friend, only 20% accepted the friend request, while about 80% accepted the friend request with more than 11 mutual friends.

It was really interesting that network effect can be applied to real life. While it is originally derived from studying people’s behaviors to begin with, to see it described as a tactic to make friends was very intriguing indeed. However, I believe it is logical that people tend to like each other if they share a common friend with whom they are good friends (strong tie). Not only that there is more chance to encounter each other (mere-exposure effect), but also that they are more likely to resemble each other to some extent (chameleon effect).

 

http://dailytimes.com.pk/infotainment/10-Nov-16/psychological-tricks-to-make-people-like-you-immediately

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