Tag: personality and attitude

When two people meet for the first time, they tend to see the other person as having a similar personality to their own. A friendly and sociable person will tend to see others as friendly and sociable. Someone who is shy and reserved will see those characteristics in others. In the world of psychology, this is known as the “assumed similarity effect.” Psychologists have theorized people use their own personalities to fill in the blanks with someone they don’t know well. Now University of Oregon psychologists have proposed, tested and found support for another contributing factor: people tend to reciprocate each other’s behavior. A person who acts friendly and sociable is more likely get the same in return.