{"id":15778,"date":"2025-12-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=15778"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:17:45","slug":"how-to-build-good-relationships-start-with-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/how-to-build-good-relationships-start-with-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Like Someone? Let Your Imagination Do the Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagination is more powerful than we realize<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It might sound like a joke, but it actually works. If you care about establishing a positive connection with someone you haven’t met yet, imagine your first meeting in a positive light<\/strong>. This simple and seemingly insignificant act will make you more likely to genuinely like them when you finally meet. What\u2019s more, these positive associations can stay in our memory for a longer time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This conclusion comes from a study conducted by an international team of scientists from the USA and Germany. The researchers utilized established knowledge that human memory and imagination function in very similar ways. Since these similarities exist, people can learn not only through memories of the past but also through the visualization of the future<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this may sound far-fetched, the scientists decided to verify their theories empirically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What exactly did the researchers test?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers invited to the study were asked to rank a list of 30 people they knew\u2014from those they liked most to those they felt an aversion toward. Then, participants were asked to spend a few seconds imagining encounters with people they had rated as “neutral.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One group imagined pleasant, positive situations, while another group visualized unpleasant or negative ones. During the study, brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result? Definitive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Individuals who had previously imagined a positive meeting began to report greater sympathy toward those people. Importantly, these were not just subjective feelings. Brain scans confirmed changes in the areas responsible for emotions<\/a> and memory.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put: the brain reacted as if the meeting had actually happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does the brain react this way?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During visualization, the so-called “reward system” is activated\u2014an area of the brain associated with pleasure and the storage of memories<\/strong>. This is why imagined but pleasant events can leave a trace in our minds similar to a real experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“This helps explain how imagining future event scenarios, such as a conversation, a social gathering, or a difficult situation, can influence our motivation, avoidance tendencies, and subsequent choices,” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

– said Aroma Dabas, one of the study’s authors, quoted by the Max Planck Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results, published in the scientific journal Nature<\/a><\/em>, allow for conclusions that are highly practical in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to use this in daily life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This simple rule can be applied in many situations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n