Recently a research says Men and Women Can't Be
"Just Friends"
Researchers asked women and men "friends" what
they really think—and got very different answers. Can heterosexual men and women
ever be “just friends”? Few other questions have provoked debates as intense,
family dinners as awkward, literature as lurid, or movies as memorable. Still,
the question remains unanswered. Daily experience suggests that non-romantic
friendships between males and females are not only possible, but common—men and
women live, work, and play side-by-side, and generally seem to be able to avoid
spontaneously sleeping together. However, the possibility remains that this
apparently platonic coexistence is merely a façade, an elaborate dance covering
up countless sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface.
New research suggests that there may be some truth to
this possibility—that we may think we’re capable of being “just friends” with
members of the opposite sex, but the opportunity (or perceived opportunity) for
“romance” is often lurking just around the corner, waiting to pounce at the
most inopportune moment.
In order to investigate the viability of truly platonic
opposite-sex friendships—a topic that has been explored more on the silver
screen than in the science lab—researchers brought 88 pairs of undergraduate
opposite-sex friends into…a science lab.
Privacy was paramount—for example, imagine the fallout if two friends
learned that one—and only one—had unspoken romantic feelings for the other
throughout their relationship. In order
to ensure honest responses, the researchers not only followed standard
protocols regarding anonymity and confidentiality, but also required both
friends to agree—verbally, and in front of each other—to refrain from
discussing the study, even after they had left the testing facility. These
friendship pairs were then separated, and each member of each pair was asked a
series of questions related to his or her romantic feelings (or lack thereof)
toward the friend with whom they were taking the study.
The results suggest large gender differences in how men
and women experience opposite-sex friendships. Men were much more attracted to
their female friends than vice versa. Men were also more likely than women to
think that their opposite-sex friends were attracted to them—a clearly
misguided belief. In fact, men’s estimates of how attractive they were to their
female friends had virtually nothing to do with how these women actually felt,
and almost everything to do with how the men themselves felt—basically, males
assumed that any romantic attraction they experienced was mutual, and were
blind to the actual level of romantic interest felt by their female friends.
Women, too, were blind to the mindset of their opposite-sex friends; because
females generally were not attracted to their male friends, they assumed that
this lack of attraction was mutual. As a result, men consistently overestimated
the level of attraction felt by their female friends and women consistently
underestimated the level of attraction felt by their male friends.
Men were also more willing to act on this mistakenly
perceived mutual attraction. Both men and women were equally attracted to
romantically involved opposite-sex friends and those who were single; “hot”
friends were hot and “not” friends were not, regardless of their relationship
status. However, men and women differed
in the extent to which they saw attached friends as potential romantic
partners. Although men were equally as likely
to desire “romantic dates” with “taken” friends as with single ones, women were
sensitive to their male friends’ relationship status and uninterested in
pursuing those who were already involved with someone else.
[image source: photostock.com]
Psychtronics.com gives the only interesting topics of
psychology and you need not to be a professional to understand the articles in
the psychtronics. They are easy to understand to every one and it is mainly for
the college students and Psychiatrists.
Like us in FB to get Updates:
www.facebook.com/psychtronics
Follow us in twitter: www.twitter.com/psychtronics
Post a Comment