We tend to be most attracted to people who share similar interests. However, new research published by the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that this attraction might be rooted in the flawed belief that similar interests reflect a more fundamental similarity or “essence.”

“Our attraction to people who share our attributes is aided by the belief that those shared attributes are driven by something deep within us: one’s essence,” explained Charles Chu, the study’s lead author.

“To put it concretely, we like someone who agrees with us on a political issue, share our music preferences, or simply laughs at the same thing as us not purely because of those similarities, but because those similarities suggest something more– this person is, in essence, like me, and as such, they share my views of the world at large.”

According to Chu, the thought process behind this is fueled by psychological essentialism that specifically applies to people’s notions about individual identity and the self. In turn, people “essentialize”– or define something by a set of deep-rooted properties– different types of things in all cultures.

“For example, the category of ‘wolf’ is defined by a wolf essence, residing in all wolves, from which stems attributes such as their pointy noses, sharp teeth, and fluffy tails as well as their pack nature and aggressiveness,” Chu detailed.

But beyond other categories, the researchers discovered that as humans, we essentialize the self, too.

To essentialize yourself is to define who you are by a set of unchanging and deeply-rooted properties. So, those who self-essentialize believe that the way they behave and the way other people view them is caused by a specific essence.

The researchers set out to better understand how this self-essentialism impacts attraction by conducting four different experiments.

In the first experiment, 954 Participants were asked to share their position on one of five social causes– which were randomly assigned. These social causes included capital punishment, abortion, animal testing, gun ownership, and physician-assisted suicide.

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Afterward, half of the participant pool read about another participant who agreed with their stance; at the same time, the other half read about a participant who disagreed with their stance.

Finally, all of the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire detailing how much they thought they shared an overall view of the world with the participant they read about. The questionnaire also asked about interpersonal attraction levels with the participant they read about, as well as beliefs in self-essentialism.

The team discovered that the participants who scored higher on self-essentialism were also more likely to be attracted to the individuals who agreed with their perspective and claimed that they shared an overall perception of reality with that person.

A second experiment, which included 464 participants, uncovered the same result, even with a shared attribute being as simple as the participants’ tendency to underestimate or overestimate the number of colored dots on computer slides. This showed that even just a small similarity led individuals to believe they viewed the world in the same way. It also resulted in greater attraction.

The third experiment showed 423 participants eight different pairs of paintings. Then, the participants were asked what painting they preferred from each pairing. Afterward, the participants were identified as fans of either two different artists.

Half of each artist’s fan group was also told that their Artistic Preference was tied to their essence; meanwhile, the other half was told their artistic preference was not related.

Then, each participant was exposed to two individuals– one of whom had the same preference and one who did not. It was found that individuals who were told that their artistic preference was tied to their essence were much more likely to be attracted to individuals with the same preference as opposed to the individuals who were told their artistic preference was not related to essence.

The researchers’ last experiment involved 449 participants, and this group was categorized as fans of one of the two artists. Afterward, the participants were provided with information about whether using their own essence was either helpful or unhelpful for perceiving other people.

Approximately 33% of the participants were told that essentialist thought could result in false impressions of others. Another 33% were told that essentialist thinking could result in accurate impressions. Lastly, the remaining 33% of participants were not provided with information.

The participants who were told that essentialist thought could result in accurate impressions were more likely to be attracted to others with similar art preferences. They were also more likely to report sharing reality with those individuals.

For Chu, it was surprising that such a small preference– liking a specific artist– could result in people believing that they view the world in the same way as another art fan. He also warned that this thought process may lead to false assumptions.

“I think any time when we’re making quick judgments or first impressions with very little information, we are likely to be affected by self-essentialist reasoning,” Chu concluded.

“People are so much more complex than we often give them credit for, and we should be wary of the unwarranted assumptions we make based on this type of thinking.”

To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.

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