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Characters like Regina George from the movie “Mean Girls” are popular on screen and in real life and new research reveals why. According to a new study from Oklahoma State University, both women and men prefer when their friends are cruel toward their enemies.
Researchers studied more than 11-hundred people in student and non-student communities to find out what behaviors they prefer in a same-sex bestie. Participants were asked to rate how much they like certain qualities in a best friend, including kindness, trustworthiness, indifference, similarity and impartiality in a conflict. And it turns out, a lot of people prefer friends who are nice to them and to strangers, but also “more vicious” or at least indifferent, to their adversaries.
Study authors explain this is because most of us choose to have friends for “preferential support.” So we tend to want friends who support us and also undermine our rivals, or at least get vicious when talking about our horrible boss or the ex who did us wrong.
Read the full story at NY Post