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Less crazy together

02.05.2023

Hans Alves

Why do we tend to like people who share our interests – and why do we like people even more if they share our most unusual tastes?

Musician Tom Waits kicked the whole thing off. “It’s not very often that you meet someone who likes him as well,” says Waits fan Professor Hans Alves. “Whenever I happened to meet someone who likes him, too, I immediately found myself being drawn to that person.” As professor of social cognition, this phenomenon naturally piqued his scientific interest. After all, various studies had already shown that sharing the same interests makes us feel an affinity towards each other. But does sharing an unusual interest increase this affinity even more?

Hans Alves
© Damian Gorczany

Why do we tend to like people who share our interests – and why do we like people even more if they share our most unusual tastes?

Musician Tom Waits kicked the whole thing off. “It’s not very often that you meet someone who likes him as well,” says Waits fan Professor Hans Alves. “Whenever I happened to meet someone who likes him, too, I immediately found myself being drawn to that person.” As professor of social cognition, this phenomenon naturally piqued his scientific interest. After all, various studies had already shown that sharing the same interests makes us feel an affinity towards each other. But does sharing an unusual interest increase this affinity even more?


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