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Having friends is important. But do you have more friends or girlfriends? If you are a woman then know that this difference will have consequences on the way in which the fairer sex will perceive you.
Do you have more friends or girlfriends? If you are a woman with more male friends, you may be less well perceived by women, according to a study published in the journal Personality And Individual Differences.
A bad image of women surrounded by friends
In this work, scientists studied male-female relationships, within the framework of friendship. It shows that a woman who prefers to surround herself with male friends has two main differences with women who are friends with women: she is more successful in her relationship and sexually, but she is also less well perceived by other women.
A more negative judgment by the fairer sex
One of the researchers’ other observations relates to women having girlfriends. These women have a negative judgment of women who are friends with men: they are perceived as being less attractive and more sexually free. A point of view not shared by men.
More assaulted by other women
Finally, by further studying this preference for male friends, the authors of this work realized that these women – who prefer male friends – feel more attacked by other women, hence their tendency to turn to men in friendship, because they do not find this type of relationship with male company.
Good in your body, good in your head!
A mutual feeling
In their work, which groups together five studies, the authors therefore agree on a feeling of reciprocal enmity concerning these two types of women. “According to an article in The New Yorker, ‘guy’s girls’, a term used for women who prefer to be friends with men, don’t get along with other women, seeing them as ‘overly sensitive and jealous.’ The sentiment seems be reciprocal; stories from popular culture suggest that “guy girls” are hated and distrusted by other women” they conclude.