July 16, 2023
SciTechDaily recently published an article featuring Charles Chu, Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, discussing his research on how individuals form connections with others.
We are generally attracted to people who are similar to us, but Chu offers a more complex explanation of why we are attracted to others. Chu shares, “If we had to come up with an image of our sense of self, it would be this nugget, an almost magical core inside that emanates out and causes what we can see and observe about people and ourselves. We argue that believing people have an underlying essence allows us to assume or infer that when we see someone who shares a single characteristic, they must share my entire deeply rooted essence, as well.”
While this way of thinking and feeling seems to be the most common way of running into our new potential match, it might just be a flawed way of thinking. Chu notes that just because we easily connect with a person who shares similar interests, we also counter that by pushing away someone with opposing interests. We only know our own minds and often fill the unknown of another’s mind with our own sense of self, leading us to unwarranted assumptions.