Sunday, May 6, 2012

Research Update: Sexual Attraction Will Usually Interfere With Male-Female Platonic Relationships — Especially For Men!

Well, I can attest to this by personal experience, LOL!

At London's Daily Mail, "Sex WILL always get in the way of the male-female relationship." (Click on image below for full size.)

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It is perfectly normal to have friendships with the opposite sex and most people would swear that they are platonic.

But according to a new study, there is nearly always attraction between male and female friends and the most common cost is dissatisfaction with current romantic partners.

Researchers from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire also found that in a test group of 400 adults, if there were feelings of attraction expressed from only one member of the friendship, it was most often from the man.

Associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study, April Bleske-Rechek believes that because platonic inter-sex relationships are a relatively new concept in the history of human evolution, men are still controlled by their mating instincts.

The participants in the study, which was split into two parts, ranged in age between 18-52 and the findings were reported in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

The first experiment split 88 pairs of friends up into different rooms and without asking anyone to identify themselves proposed a series of questions.

This exercise aimed to glean information about the individuals' attraction to their companions, desire to go on a romantic date and perception of whether their friends were interested in them romantically.

The results showed that men more frequently admitted attraction to their female friends while also overestimating their friend's romantic feelings towards them.

Women on the other hand were less likely to fancy their friends or assume that the males had those kinds of feelings for them.
It's hard out there for a hunk!

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