It ’s easy to like someone simply because they ’re into the same music as you are , or to hate a person because of their view on theshape of the Earth . According to new enquiry , there ’s a simple psychological mechanism behind this tendency to judge a person based on a single characteristic , highlighting how therules of attractionare shaped by unjust assumptions .

While the sometime adage thatopposites attractmay apply to magnetic pole and static cathexis , human relationships are for the most part govern by the so - call similarity - attractor effect , whereby we tend to like masses who are just like us . Thus , the manner in which we delimit ourselves has a massive impact on the character of people we identify with .

accord to the authors of the new study , our ability to conceptualize our identity relies on something called self - essentialist abstract thought , whereby we imagine ourselves to possess some inner essence that determines who we are . “ 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 make what we can see and respect about people and ourselves , ” explained study author Charles Chu , from Boston University , in astatement .

“ believe people have an fundamental essence allows us to assume or infer that when we see someone who partake a unmarried machine characteristic , they must portion out my total profoundly stock-still kernel , as well , ” he enjoin To examine this assumption , the investigator enrol 2,290 masses to take part in a serial of experiments .

As prognosticate , those with higher levels of self - essentialist reasoning were more likely to feelattractedto Jamie when they agreed with their own views .

In a second experiment , the researchers asked participants to estimate the telephone number of dots on a CRT screen , and then categorize them as either over- or under - estimators . Amazingly , issue revealed that hoi polloi with a stronger notion in their own all-important essence were more probable to feel positively about Jamie when told that they shared a tendency to over- or under - estimation .

“ I determine that both with pretty meaningful dimensions of law of similarity as well as with arbitrary , minimal similarities , the great unwashed who are higher in their belief that they have an essence are more likely to be attract to these like others as opposed to dissimilar others , ” said Chu .

The researcher then conducted two further experiments in which player were explicitly tell that hoi polloi ’s penchant in artistry is not link to their personality . Interestingly , this noesis prevented player from strongly identify with others who shared their own artistic taste .

Conversely , those who were told that the antonym is dependable were more probable to feel positively towards those who wish the same picture as them .

Summarizing their upshot , the cogitation writer explain how self - essentialist abstract thought causes us to “ project   many   of our own attributes onto another person with whom we share a   individual   dimension . ”

“ The warm feel we get toward someone we just met who has something in coarse with us , that sense that this someone is   my   form of person and sees thing as I do , is founded upon this notion and the abstract thought cognitive operation it enables , ” they go along .

“ On a good day , self - essentialist abstract thought facilitates the unambiguously human capacity for societal connection by helping us see a spot more of ourselves in others , ” conclude the researchers .

“ On a bad one , this opinion might activate the darker aspect of humanity to socially leave out by delineate the boundary between us and them . ”

The bailiwick is publish in theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology .