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A study conducted on friendship revealed that friendship between men is partly based on not having the same tastes in the types of women. An innate way to eliminate competition? Maybe.
Friendship between men has a long history, present in all cultures. It originally allowed us to form bonds allowing survival, to become over time a shared experience, a link allowing us to get through the trials as well as the good times. But while many studies establish that friends generally tend to have similar levels of education, age, intelligence and physical attractiveness, the same is not true when it comes to partner preferences.
“Speed friending” to define friendship criteria
In a recent study published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships The authors sought to test a hypothesis: When two people of the same sex meet, their attraction to each other as potential friends would be stronger if their partner preferences were different.
Their (small) analysis focused on 38 university students – 20 men and 18 women – with an average age of 22, all heterosexual. Participants completed an online survey in which they indicated their preferences for 10 characteristics in a potential partner. They were then shown 20 photos of the opposite sex and asked to rank them from most attractive to least attractive. This set included photos of 10 celebrities and 10 strangers. After completing the survey, participants were invited to a three-hour “speed-friending” session, organized separately for men and women. After each interaction, they completed a short survey to rate their attraction to the friendship. When friendship attractiveness ratings were examined, results showed that participants tended to find the same people attractive as friends who found them attractive.
But when the study authors examined the association between mate preferences and friendship attractiveness, they found that men, unlike women, were more attracted to other men as as potential friends when they had different partner preferences.
Good in his body, good in his head!
Friendship possible when intrasexual competition does not intervene
“This study provides the first evidence that men’s mate preferences can influence their attitudes toward potential new friends without any knowledge. This phenomenon, if found to be robust, would be consistent with an understanding of intrasexual competition in man derived from the theory of parental investment”conclude the authors of the study.
It is important to note, however, that the research involved a small, selective group of participants and relied only on self-reported data, leaving room for reporting bias.