Like Or Dislike: Scientific Theories Why We Like or Dislike A Person

Here are the scientific theories why we like or dislike a person

It is a fact that there are people that we like or dislike and here are the scientific theories that will explain why we feel this way towards others.

Liking or disliking other people is normal in the life of an individual. For some, they can easily point out why they feel at ease with a person or if they feel something not so likable. According to the article from Brightside, there are scientific theories that explain why we like or dislike a certain person.

like or dislike
Photo courtesy of 123rf.com

Text message

Yes, a text message can explain why we like people more than the others. Based on the experiment conducted by the scientist at the State University of New York at Binghamton, people perceived that a text message with a period could be interpreted as a show of anger or insincerity.

Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics, explained that using a period could imply that you are serious or you are ending the conversation. As it is a fact that facial expression, gesture, and tone or volume of the voice cannot be used in sending text messages, we tend to resort to icons, emojis, and punctuation marks.

Behaving according to what other people expect

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy explained in one of her articles for Harvard Magazine that “If you think someone’s a jerk, you’ll behave toward them in a way that elicits jerky behaviors and then you say, ‘See? He is a jerk!’ This is one of the dangers of stereotypes. When we elicit behaviors consistent with the stereotypes we hold, we tell ourselves, ’See? The stereotypes are right!’”

Knowing how to use this concept, according to the article, you can use this to make other people behave as what you want them to be.

Traits

One scientific theory why we like or dislike a person is that their traits. The article stated that we tend to be drawn to people who have the same traits that we like about ourselves and those positive traits that we don’t possess.

Strangers resembling someone we once trusted

An experiment conducted by US researchers showed that people are more inclined to trust someone who resembles someone they trusted before.

Popularity

Today, it is quite easy how to determine whos is popular or not through social media and it has a connection to how we like other people. A study about neural mechanism explained this. Brains of the participants were being scanned as they were asked to estimate the popularity of a person based on their photos on social media. Researchers found out that certain parts of the brain were very active while during the activity. The neural network determines how attractive people are for others. In doing this, emotional estimation and the systems of social knowledge are required.

Perception of other people

According to the article, we like other people’s perception of us to be the same as how we perceive ourselves. We tend to communicate more to people with positive feedback which is the same to our own perception of ourselves, a sociological study stated this.

Looks

Admit it or not, the more symmetrical the person looks, the more he or she becomes attractive in our eyes. A group of women was asked to rate images of the bodies and faces of men for physical attractiveness. More women chose more symmetrical bodies, meaning lower levels of oxidative stress, as more attractive.

What can you say about this?

READ ALSO: Hypnagogic Jerk: Why You Twitch Before Falling Asleep?

Leave a Comment