What do people like?

• We never buy from a seller we don’t like.

• We rarely become close friends with people we genuinely dislike.

• We hardly ever hire the job applicant we don’t like. 

• We certainly don’t promote the unlikable one.

• We learn better in the classroom of the teacher we like and who appears to like us. This is true even when that teacher is a strict disciplinarian.

• We never vote for the candidate we dislike most. In fact, even when we think the more unlikable one would do a better job, chances are we’ll not even go to the polling place this time.

• We all know people we don’t care for. We go out of our way not to socialize with them. We think, “We have nothing in common.”

• We all have family members we don’t like, and the only reason we put up with them is just that: They’re family.

• We all have colleagues at work with varying degrees of likability. Which ones do we gravitate to at break time?