Are your friends just like you, or do opposites attract in your world?

We asked people in an international poll how they felt about their choice of friends.

See how you compare in our interactive quiz:

Are you stuck in a social bubble, or do your friends all have different backgrounds and outlooks from you? Find out how you compare with people from 28 countries around the world by answering the following survey questions. Bubbling over Wow – all of your friends are from the same year at school as you, and they went on to get jobs with similar salaries, and you have never had a full conversation with anyone who disagrees with you because you are a rhetorical force of nature who wins people over to your way of thinking instantaneously. But it sounds like life is too easy. Perhaps you should challenge yourself – why not start a conversation with a total stranger on public transport or sit in the away supporters’ section at your team’s stadium and cheer on your opponents?

When you’re done, you could move to one of the more socially divided countries in our data and convince others to follow suit: India for age, Saudi Arabia for income, China on being comfortable around people who were different, and Mexico on wanting to understand people who were different. Japan was where people were most likely to say they never have a conversation with people who disagree with them – you up for solving that? Heavy bubble Your world is more socially isolated than the average person in our survey. Have you considered getting some new hobbies? Or perhaps you’re just a bit more honest than most…

Countries with people who reported feeling more insular than average included India on age, Russia on income, and China on being comfortable around people who were different. People in Japan felt most able to confide that wanting to understand those who felt differently from them was either a little like me or even not like me. And people in Canada were most likely to admit that their conversations with people who disagreed with them happened less than monthly. Average bubble Straight down the middle! However much or little you feel like you’re insulated from people with different views or backgrounds to you, there are many people around the world who feel exactly the same. Or at least say they feel the same when filling in an online survey. Everybody tells the truth on the internet, right?

The most common answer for the income question was that about half of survey respondents’ friends were from the same income bracket, and people in China were most likely to report this was true of them. For age, it was more than half and this was the most popular answer in Turkey. As to whether people felt more comfortable in groups similar to them, the most common answer was that this sounded like me and people in Russia were most likely to say this. People who took the survey were most likely to say that wanting to understand people who were different from them felt very much like them. Bit of a bubble You clearly make an effort to spent time with people with a range of backgrounds and political standpoints – or perhaps it just comes naturally! Either way your life is less isolated that the average respondent to our survey. Unless… you weren’t secretly just virtue-signalling in your answers? Surely not. Who would do that?

Certainly not people in Poland or Columbia, where respondents were most likely to report that less than half of their friends were from the same age group or income band as them. Argentinians were most likely to say it was not like me to feel most comfortable hanging out with groups of people who were similar to them, whereas Chinese survey respondents were most likely to say that it was like me to want to understand those with differing views. Bubble free Goodness, your social circle is much more diverse than the average respondent to our survey – you are an example to us all! You may find kindred spirits in: South Africa, where people were most likely to report that nearly all of their friends were from different age groups and income bands than them, and also most likely to declare that it was important to understand people they disagreed with. Peruvians were most likely to report that they were happy hanging out with groups of people that were similar to them, whereas Brazilians were most likely to say they had conversations with people who held opposing views to them every day. What proportion of your friends have about the same level of income as you? What proportion of your friends are of the same age group as you? How well does this describe the REAL you?: I feel more comfortable in groups of people who are similar to me. How well does this describe the REAL you?: It is important for me to listen to people who are different from myself. Even if I disagree with the other person, I still want to understand them. How often, if at all, do you have conversations with people who have opposing views to your own on issues such as politics, climate change, immigration and feminism?

The results of the survey, conducted among people with internet access across 27 countries, suggested respondents felt their social circles to be much more diverse than is generally recognised by academics.

"The research shows that people like to remain optimistic, they like to feel they are diverse and tolerant," says Ipsos Mori's Glenn Gottfried, who oversaw the fieldwork.

"It is a very positive finding, even if... we may not do as much as we think we should to escape the 'social bubble' we live in."

Note on quiz methodology

The answers to each survey question are categorised according to where they fit on a spectrum between comparative isolation from people with different backgrounds and points of view to strong connections with them.

The result assigned at the end of the quiz is based on an aggregation of the position on the spectrum for each answer given, so people who click the most socially isolated answer for each question will end up in the "bubbling over" category, and those clicking the opposite answers will get "bubble free", with middling answers steering readers towards the corresponding middling categories.

But the categories at the end of the quiz are defined by the responses people gave to the survey, rather than any arbitrary definition of what it means to be in a social bubble.

So, if an answer corresponds to one end of the spectrum but was also a common response in the survey, then this will steer the reader towards the relevant category less than if it were an unusual survey response.

For example, when asked whether it was "important to listen to people who are different" from themselves, many people in the survey sample answered "very much" - in fact this was the most common answer. Therefore answering this way in the quiz would mean that a reader would still be heading towards the "bubble free" category, but to a lesser extent than the opposite answer ("not at all") would steer a reader towards the "bubbling over" category.

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