It kinda makes sense that more people would think their friends like them more than they like their friends. People are popular because they make their friends

It kinda makes sense that more people would think their friends like them more than they like their friends. People are popular because they make their friends feel liked. So there’s some economy of scale to being popular that the receiving friends don’t notice. It might even be a genuine friendship, but ultimately someone with 5 friends is gonna place greater weight on them than someone with 50 friends, and just by numbers the person with 50 friends will be on the other side of the 5 friends more times than the person with 5 friends will be the friend of someone else with 5 friends.