> when talking to them I often feel all they're doing is telling me how right I am to feel in such and such way, frequently highlighting the differences between "us" and "them", whoever "them" might be, whenever the opportunity arise. (I suppose you'd call that 'gossip').
It's called "emotional validation", and widely acknowledged as something that women are notoriously keen on and men are notoriously bad at providing.
Yes, it would be called that. I suppose the I'm not entirely comfortable with it all the time because when someone is doing it to me, they're just saying I'm right because I think I'm right, rather than telling them what they think. I suppose they could actually be feeling the same way as I do about the issue but that would only have happened because through the way I told the the story I managed to transfer my emotions to them. Sometimes I feel I'm talking to a mirror rather than a friend. Of course at other times it's just hearing what I want to hear and I suppose everyone would enjoy that from time to time. It's not something I want my friend to exclusively do to me all the time whenever we're communicating however.
My wife and I kid about it, but to me, emotional validation is the same as a lack of confidence. I have some unpopular beliefs, I don't need them to be validated by anyone. If I did, I would be a sheep.
It's called "emotional validation", and widely acknowledged as something that women are notoriously keen on and men are notoriously bad at providing.
http://www.womensweb.in/2012/04/validating-feelings-expressi...
Or, in a satirical manner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg