Human beings display hyper-social behavior in comparison to animals. A person would go out of his way to be nice to a complete stranger. A chipmunk wouldn’t bother.
Science suggests that the reason lies within us: we are genetically similar to our friends. James Fowler of the University of California declares it to be true.
Research
Fowler worked with Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist at Yale, to conduct thorough research on the subject and published the findings in 2014 in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
This is what their findings were – almost two thousand people who had been friends with each other since 1994 had stark genetic similarity.
Previous studies have proved genetic similarities between long married couples — they even look similar. This research proves that friends have two thirds of genetic similarities as those of married couples.
There is no single “friendship gene”. Friends have all different sorts of genetic similarities — the olfactory genes make them partial to the smell of coffee or the athletic gene that helps them perform well at sports. The resemblance is only 1% of the total genetic markers, but is still impactful.
Christakis is in support of the theory:
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Explanations
But scientists are unsure about why this happens. Human beings are unique in their ability of making long-term relationships with creatures of the species. In addition to that, we prefer the company of people that we resemble.
Sociologists suggest two explanations:
- Social homophily — people forms bonds based on shared genetics.
- Social structuring — people are drawn to their own social environment that is in part shaped by genetics. Society acts as an impersonal force in this case.
Whatever the reason, the ancient wisdom of “birds of a feather flock together” cannot be dismissed as hyperbole. It has been approved by science.
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