Can Men and Women Be "Just Friends"?

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire investigated the popular question of whether men and women can be "just friends" and discovered that perhaps Harry is right all along:

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.

This is what happens when researchers met opposite-sex friendship: Link | Research paper [PDF]

So what do you think Neatoramanauts?

Can men and women be just friends?



From the perspective of someone who is older and married... I don't have any male friends outside of "husbands of my friends" and "friends of my husband" in which those folks are ALL friends, or male relatives, or internet friends that never expect to meet in real life. I don't get out much.

I recall a couple of decades ago when I announced my divorce, and all the sudden several of my co-workers, who I considered "friends," wanted to start a "relationship" immediately. That was an eye-opener! Life is hard when you are young and single.
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As a fat woman I can promise you that men and women can be just friends. Men will claim that they can't, but as soon as the woman in question is fat or unattractive, friendship is all they ever want from them. This question always assumes average or attractive women, as if those of us who are ugly have no gender at all.
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I'm a woman. One time, a male friend of mine, who I considered a good friend, made romantic moves on me, and I didn't like it. I had never thought of him as more than just a friend. So there is that.
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