Can men and women be friends?

A group of male and female students sitting in the grass

By Charity Young

Have you ever seen “When Harry Met Sally?” Well, Harry gives the perfect explanation why it’s just not possible. A man and woman cannot be friends; no matter how hard we try someone will end up falling for the other.

Researchers at UW-Eau Claire attempted to find out if men and women can be just friends. During the study, 88 opposite sex undergraduate friendship pairs were given questionnaires. Then were separated to answer the questions honestly, here is what they came up with: men had higher physical and sexual attraction to their women friends, men had desires to date their women friends, women reported moderate attraction to their males friends.

“For me, yes. But all my guy friends end up liking me after a while,” said Sonisa Thapa, senior at William Peace University. “My friend and I were not attracted to each other when we met, but eventually we started to like each others personalities.”

Even worse, when they furthered the study they found that married couples that had feelings towards their opposite sex friends had a lower satisfaction rate in their own marriages. Yikes! Attraction can be the enemy, opposite sex friendships can ruin your own if you’re not careful.

Leave a comment