from Diary 2024-03-07 People who spontaneously assert allot attentions. Facebook ç«‹ć· æ™șäčŸ.iconI have quite a few friends who profess to have “I don’t have many friends” and actually seem to have few friends. In other words, people like myself, who think that having many friends is a good thing, and people who think, “I don’t need many friends, and if you want, I don’t need any. People like myself who think “having many friends is justified” and people who think “it’s okay not to have friends” can be friends. This is a very interesting fact.

nishio.iconI think it is rather subtle whether “people who profess to have few friends” think “it is okay to have few friends, or even better, not to have any.” Especially the “don’t need to have any” part. There is probably a difference between people who say “I don’t have many friends” in reaction to something and people who spontaneously say “I don’t have many friends,” and the latter are devoting their attentions to the number of friends they have. Since such people are interested in the number of friends they have, they think negatively about having few friends, but they are conscious that they are not good at increasing the number of friends, so they resolve this incongruity by claiming that it is good to have fewer friends. It’s like saying “sour grapes” when you can’t get grapes.

ç«‹ć· æ™șäčŸ.iconIf people who don’t have many friends insist, in a sour grapes way, that it’s okay to have few friends, I feel a sense of wickedness in the process by which this argument has come to seem so civilized. As someone who thinks that “it’s better to have many friends,” I feel that you shouldn’t try to increase the number of your sour grapes friends.

gpt.iconThis exchange provides insight into people’s differing attitudes toward the number of friends and how they affect their social perceptions and self-perceptions. Tomoya Tachikawa and nishio’s views develop a deep social psychological argument by exploring how individuals’ views on the number of friends are formed and how they are interpreted within a social context.

A social psychological approach to the number of friends

. Tomoya Tachikawa’s statement, while expressing his own value of preferring to have many friends, suggests that people who profess to have few friends may in fact also value their friendships. This perspective indicates that the various attitudes and beliefs people have about the number of friends may in fact be complemented by the quality and depth of their friendships.

nishio’s response points out that self-reports of having few friends does not necessarily imply a belief that it is okay to have few friends. This analysis brings to mind the social psychology concept of cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance theory refers to the psychological process by which people experience discomfort when they perceive discrepancies between their own behaviors and beliefs and attempt to change their beliefs and attitudes to resolve the discomfort.

Social influence and self-perception

. Tomoya Tachikawa’s statement about what he perceives as “wickedness” reflects his concern about how values and expectations about the number of friends in society affect an individual’s self-perception and social standing. While society generally emphasizes the value of “more friends is better,” the process by which the attitude of “less friends is better” becomes accepted demonstrates the individual’s reaction to societal values and expectations.


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