A study done by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that people we consider our friends might not feel the same for us. This indirectly means that we may be bad at recognising our friends, people who consider us as a part of their circle.

During the experiment, 94% of the students thought that their friendships would be reciprocated but only 53% were. This is how study co-author Erez Shmueli explained it.

“If you think someone is your friend, you expect him to feel the same way. But in fact that’s not the case.”

The study authors further added:

“These findings suggest a profound inability of people to perceive friendship reciprocity, perhaps because the possibility of non-reciprocal friendship challenges one-self image.”

In other words, friendship is a two-way street and many people are poor at perceiving friendship ties. Maybe because, if the relationship is not mutual, they don’t want to end their day being the unwanted one.

However, there is one more layer added to this news. The study also revealed that mutual relationships tend to affect social pressures and human behaviour. And this is what the researchers said about this experiment:

“Reciprocal relationships are important because of social influence. We found, not surprisingly, that those pressured by reciprocal friends exercised more and enjoyed greater progress than those with unilateral friendship ties.”

Because there are some friends who are nice to hang out with but are never called during an emergency.

Masthead Image Source: India Forums