You Really Can Judge People by the Company They Keep | Big Think - 0 views
-
There is an old adage, “take stock of the company you keep”.
-
This tendency was strongest, however, in one trait above all: antagonism. With the connection being most prominent for the the trifecta of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
- ...2 more annotations...
-
Now, antagonistic people didn’t claim to like these traits in other people. They rated them as traits of average likability in other people, but this was much higher than the resounding disapproval of the trait given by people who did not claim to be antagonistic. A person with a generally negative trait will tend to tolerate their own trait in others.
-
Questions remain with this data, all of the subjects self-reported their tendencies to these personality traits. Would a person who doesn’t know they are antagonistic still think of it as an average trait? Were the subjects honest? The study also only asked about likability, there was no inquiry into if they would interact with people who had those traits.
-
There is a old saying in China says that animals gather by species, human gather by interests. Basically, it is saying that people with similar interest or characteristics tends to hang out together. There is another old saying in China saying that if you always hang out with bad people, you will eventually turn bad as well. This means that people around you can change you to behave like them. I think this phenomenon in human society is reasonable and follows the logic of revolution because human are social animals. In order to get along with a group, you have to either find a group of people that are just like you or change yourself to fit in that group of people.