Interpersonal attraction

Interpersonal attraction is the attraction that happens between people that leads to the formation of either friendship or romantic relationships. Interpersonal attraction doesn’t only describe the attraction that happens between different sexes but it also explores the reasons that make certain people become friends.
By understanding interpersonal attraction you will be able to understand, why do you have certain friends and not some others and you will also know why you get attracted to certain people and not to others.

Similarity & Interpersonal attraction

People get attracted to those who are similar to them in their values, beliefs, background and interests. This happens because one of the strong forces that affects attraction is the desire to feel comfortable around the people you are with.

If a friend of yours has got dissimilar values and beliefs you may not find yourself that comfortable when being around him and so you may not get attracted to him.
Likes attract likes and this goes for interpersonal attraction too. People tend to look for those who are similar to them because they feel more comfortable with the known than the unknown.
This also explains why the people you spend lots of time with everyday become your friends. (your room mate, or work colleagues). The more time you spend with a person the more you will feel comfortable around him and the more likely you will become friends. The desire to feel secure while being around your friends has a strong influence on the choice of both your friends and your romantic partner.
For example by convincing the person's subconscious mind that there are lots of similarities between you and him you are actually increasing the chance of making him fall in love with you.
Its important to convince the person's subconscious mind and not his conscious mind because you don't want him to become aware of the fact that you are trying to convince him to believe in something. If the person didn't notice this he will just feel that you are similar to each other without knowing why.

Physical attractiveness

You may think that physical attractiveness is only important in romantic relationships however it was found that physical attractiveness plays an important role in friendship with the same sex .People tend to become attracted to others who seem physically attractive even if they were of the same sex.
This usually happens because the media hypes attractive and good looking people by sending a message to everyone saying that they are heroes. Beauty standards will differ from a country to another however with the arrival of globalization and the advance in communication technology i assume that world wide beauty standards are being defined.
People with poor self Image will definitely choose friends who look attractive and they may even avoid people who don't seem attractive to them.

Friend’s upgrades and downgrades

One of the important factors that your mind looks for when you look for potential friend is the amount of benefit you will get out of that friend. Have you ever met someone you already know then after you spoke about certain topics you decided to get closer to him?
This happened because your mind discovered that you could reap many potential benefits if you got closer to that person.
The same happens when you decide not to approach someone anymore. This happens because your mind discovers that being close to that person might result in problems.