When we learn more about a stranger, we feel like they know us better too
Oddly enough, I have a surprising amount of experience with this. I used to play piano for a church of ~500 where my dad is one of the pastors in my hometown, and played a lot of music around town as well. All of those factors together meant that a lot of people knew way more about me than I knew about them.In my experience, many of these folks thought they have much more of a relationship than I did. People who knew my name and would strike up conversations in the grocery store like I knew them at all outside of these conversations. The worst part is that I got used to pretending like I knew people and navigating very fake conversations, in a way that I was not a fan of. It's a form of masking that I got very good at.I'm moving back to my hometown soon because I've gotten a remote job and my family needs the support system right now. This is an aspect I'm not very excited to get back to.