Quote from John Freeman on July 31, 2023, 10:58 am

Hello,

I thought I had discovered a concept yesterday. Then thought: probably it exists. It does.

Anyway, the idea that came to me yesterday is the following situation. It's when we meet someone and somehow we don't like them. They might not be bad people or even demeaning. They're rivals. (dramatic music)

That is, they specialized and occupy the same social niche as us. For instance: he's being the cool guy and we're usually the cool guy. He/she's the well-travelled been there done that guy: "wait a second, that's my part". He/she's the funny one: "Hey, that's what I do".

What I mean is that sometimes we have animosity towards someone for the only reason that they're occupying the same social niche (without being aware of it). Therefore there's a competition in it for the role in itself and/or the hierarchical level in it in the group.

I think that explains the situation I think we all experienced: "I don't like this guy" and 3 months later: "He's my best friend". Sometimes it's because we are quite similar and in the first place it feels like a threat (could be also on the status game continuum: success, virtue, dominance). Then the similarity brings us closer when we see this person is not a threat to our status but rather an ally.