HOME |
RSS | 
Despite
of what you may have heard, opposites actually don't attract. A
new study shows that despite what most people say about seeking a
wider circle of friendship (say, in a large college setting, where there
are a lot of different types of people available), they typically befriend
only those most similar to themselves:
In an ideal world, being able to meet lots of different people at college would lead to a diversity of friends; we’d take advantage of the human variety on display.
But that’s not what happened. Bahns et al. found that students at the huge state school tended to spend time with people who were much more similar to them than students at the small, rural colleges.
According to the scientists, the level of correlation between friends on the survey was higher on 80 percent of the questions at the University of Kansas, suggesting that the undergraduates were using the size of the campus to identify those who shared their precise set of beliefs, habits and attitudes.
Instead of learning from people who were extremely different – who disagreed with their stance on abortion, or didn’t like ultimate frisbee, or never attended football games – the students were obeying the similarity-attraction effect, sifting through the vast population to find the most homologous possible circle of friends. As the researchers put it, “the larger social contexts afford better opportunity for finegrained assortment.”
Your cute video of the day is brought to you by the Hillside Animal Sanctuary, where Tabitha the Pig plays with her best buddy Susie the Dog.
Andrew Hough and Martin Coutts of The Telegraph has the story:
Five-week-old Tabitha was found close to death by the side of a road in Norfolk when she was just a couple of days old. She was found "shivering and alone" by a member of the public on a country lane on the outskirts of Norwich.
Susie, who is five years-old, was rescued from appalling conditions at a Welsh puppy farm two years ago where she had been used to breed from.
Wendy Valentine, the founder of Hillside, said: “They just took an instant shine to each other and whilst Susie wanted to mother Tabitha at first as she’s grown older they seem to be the very best of friends.
“They are constantly with each other and don’t like being separated. "They go to sleep with each other and eat next to each other. It’s lovely to see them playing with each other, Susie is very gentle with her and seems to know she’s only young."
What would you do to help out a friend? Sixteen-year-old teenager Lui Shi Ching of Hebei carries his friend Lu Shao on his back for 8 years:
In Hebei, China, a teenager named Lui Shi Ching, 16 years old, has carried his friend to school daily for the last 8 years. His friend Lu Shao has a congenital disorder which makes it difficult for him to walk.
Eight years ago on a rainy day, Lu shao was stuck at school when his mom didn’t come to pick him up. Lui Shi Ching, who was smaller than Lu Shao, decided to help and carried him home. [...]
Lui Shi Ching didn’t brag about his good deeds too much; his parents didn’t even find out until 4 years after he first helped out his friend.
Zinzi is a young lioness that was rejected by her mother. Bob is a meerkat who lives at Predator World Zoo and Game Farm near Sun City, South Africa. The two are best friends and even sleep together, echoing the friendship between the characters Simba and Timon in the Disney movie The Lion King. They live with Marcell Tournier, who owns the safari attraction.
Zinzi was brought in at just one day old when Marcell realised her mother was refusing to feed her a harsh reality of nature that could have meant the end of adorable Zinzi.
But almost as soon as the lion had moved in to the home, near Sun City, South Africa, Mr Tournier quickly realised he wasn’t Zinzi’s only fan.
Lively two-year-old Meerkat instantly took a shine to his new playmate.
Amazingly Bob began following his much bigger friend day and night and would even snuggle in at nap time.
(Image credit: Barcroft Media)
Comments Off
One day, Bhagavan "Doc" Antle of The Institute of the Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (yes, with the clever acronym T.I.G.E.R.S.) was taking Surya the orangutan on their daily elephant ride, when they happened upon a hound dog by the river.
And so began one of the unlikeliest friendships ever. Check out what happened next in this National Geographic Channel clip: hit play or go to Link – Thanks SparkS!
"It may be that natural selection is acting on not just things like whether or not we can resist the common cold, but also who it is that we are going to come into contact with," Fowler said in a statement.
Link - via clusterflock
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by 
