Ten Things I Hate About You And She's All That By Sandra Graham

“Opposites attract” was the first explanation I received when I asked my mom why my quiet and reserved best friend Ciana and I got along. My rambunctious, five-year-old self didn’t completely understand what she meant by it, but I interpreted it to mean that those most dissimilar to me were intended to be my closest friends. This belief was only further supported by film and literature as I grew older. The phrase “opposites attract” is the central trope of countless artistic projects, namely teen romance films. Movies like “Ten Things I Hate About You” and “She’s All That” revolve around the belief that the people most unlike you are those who are most suited to love you. For example, the girl next-door falls for the stereotypical bad boy

The study attempts to show the linkage between middle school aged children and who they enjoy spending their time with, as well as determining is cross-ethnic friendships are more or less likely that same-ethnic friendships. The researches studied social patterns in the greater Los Angeles area in middle schoolers by conducting traditional surveys. After receiving empirical information on all the participants of the study such as academic grade point average, physical development, and classroom diversity, Echols et. al (2013) gave a survey to each of the participants, asking who the students enjoy spending time with. Upon separation of the genders (in order to eliminate dating relationships over friend relationships) and data collection, Echols et. al (2013) determined that out of 2,771 potential same-sex cross-ethnic friendship pairs, 443 one-way friendship nominations were made and 354 reciprocal friendship nominations were made. Upon further analysis, the researchers determined that the reciprocal cross-ethnic friendships were more likely when the two students shared similarities such as academic grade point average and victim status. This implies that these middle schoolers were more likely to befriend students of another race if they had something in common with them. While Echols et. al (2013) study does not prove neither that “opposites attract” nor “birds of a feather flock together,” it provides compelling evidence that adolescences chose friends based on similarities, regardless of race or creed. This indicates that similar people get along with one another, but race is not something that it necessarily considered when determining similarity, and rather traits like academic success and victim status denote