Understanding Our Friendships

Why do we “get” our friends??
Well, turns out that our brains increased activity in a network of regions when they were shown pictures of themselves as well as their friends.
If another person is similar to you, in their beliefs, it is important in social roles and human survival. We can only understand people to the extent that we see them as similar to ourselves.
A study was done at Harvard University, where participants provided information about themselves and two friends, one friend who they believed had similar preferences and one who was not. That information was used to create biographies of two “strangers” for other participants.
The participants were then put in a brain scanner and asked questions about how their friends and about how strangers would answer certain questions.
The same network that was active when people saw pictures of themselves was also active when they answered questions about their friends. When they talked about strangers, the network was not activated to the extent as it was for friends.
Researchers think that the brain network is linked to the understanding of the connection of oneself to others.
Clearly we understand our friends better than we do strangers…now we have to think, is it scientific or is it just time spent together?