Seems we assume our friends agree with us, just because they are our friends. Yes you agree with your friends more than with random folk, but you agree less than you think: Friends disagree more than they think they do. In particular, friends are typically unaware of their disagreements, even when they say they discuss the topic, suggesting that discussion is not the primary means by which friends infer each other’s views on particular issues. Rather, it appears that respondents infer opinions in part by relying on stereotypes of their friends and in part by projecting their own views. (
My mother attracts these people like a flame attracts moths. She has many friends, and a story for virtually each of them when she revealed an opinion contrasting with the friend's, and the friend was taken aback in utter amazement (or in a few cases, literal flat-out disbelief).
My mother attracts these people like a flame attracts moths. She has many friends, and a story for virtually each of them when she revealed an opinion contrasting with the friend's, and the friend was taken aback in utter amazement (or in a few cases, literal flat-out disbelief).
I'm painfully aware of how much I disagree with friends, actually.
Here's a blog post about it by the first author (Sharad Goel) which includes a link to a free version of the paper: http://messymatters.com/fri...