They’re the ones you turn to when you need help moving or motivation for that early morning yoga class. You probably don’t need to have a reason to keep your favourite people around, but studies have shown that having a close group of friends can do wonders for your mental health, self-esteem and even disease prevention.
This study might interest you even more. The University of California, San Diego and Yale University have found that although we may not be biologically related to our buddies, we are ‘genetically related.’
Say what?
This means that we’re more similar on a genetic level to the friends we’ve chosen than we are to strangers. We have friends, we have family and now we have framily.
The
researchers found that we’re often as ‘related’ as fourth cousins, or people who share the same great-grandparents (they made sure that this wasn’t actually the case with the people used in the study). That means we share about 1% of the same genes, which luckily is not enough to cause a panic if you fall for your housemate.
We will pause for the inevitable sighs of relief.
One explanation for this DNA commonality may lie in your nose. At the top of the list for common genes were those related to sense of smell, which means that people with similar olfactory genes will smell things the same way. They will thus be attracted to, or turned off by, the same smells in the same environments.
This can have an effect on our social connections. For example, people who adore the smell of coffee will be
drawn to a coffee shop, and meet people who were also drawn there. As Toucan Sam says, “follow your nose.”
If you thought your friendships were all free will, you may have to think again.
As part of the study, the researchers also developed what they call a "friendship score," which they can now use with some confidence to
predict who will be friends. It’s the same kind of data that scientists currently use for predicting (on the basis of genes) a person's chances of obesity or schizophrenia. Perhaps in the future, we’ll be relying on DNA tests before we plunge into misguided friendships.
If you’ve ever said, “You are like family to me” you now know it isn’t a trite expression. It could be as true as the genes that you wear.
