So the problem here is that obviously there will be huge numbers of counter-exceptions to your proposed rule. Essentially while your rule probably has some predictive power—if you could passively observe thousands of humans interacting your rule might predict friendships better than chance—most likely there’s a better rule. You might need invasive brain data-loggers to find it but such a rule probably exists.
There are most likely sequences of inputs that cause most human brains to become receptive to new friendships.
Or maybe it’s a matter of logistics—you obviously can’t really form friendships with people you only are in proximity with briefly.
Childhood, a certain fraction of your elementary school class will be the same individuals all the way to senior year of high school. Hence, more years in proximity = stronger friendships. College is much shorter duration. In many workplaces, the economics encourage frequent job switches (about every 1.5 − 4 years is what the rules of the game call for), making such lasting interactions less likely.
And then there’s the fact that with limited cognitive resources, you can only maintain so many friendships and probably won’t invest in a new one if your older ones are still active. Thus the probability of a friendship would be higher in childhood because you don’t already have as many friends.
So the problem here is that obviously there will be huge numbers of counter-exceptions to your proposed rule. Essentially while your rule probably has some predictive power—if you could passively observe thousands of humans interacting your rule might predict friendships better than chance—most likely there’s a better rule. You might need invasive brain data-loggers to find it but such a rule probably exists.
There are most likely sequences of inputs that cause most human brains to become receptive to new friendships.
Or maybe it’s a matter of logistics—you obviously can’t really form friendships with people you only are in proximity with briefly.
Childhood, a certain fraction of your elementary school class will be the same individuals all the way to senior year of high school. Hence, more years in proximity = stronger friendships. College is much shorter duration. In many workplaces, the economics encourage frequent job switches (about every 1.5 − 4 years is what the rules of the game call for), making such lasting interactions less likely.
And then there’s the fact that with limited cognitive resources, you can only maintain so many friendships and probably won’t invest in a new one if your older ones are still active. Thus the probability of a friendship would be higher in childhood because you don’t already have as many friends.