Two-thirds of couples start out as friends, research finds that two-thirds of couples start out as friends, research finds

Source: China Daily

Youda above, lovers are not enough? Then maybe you can add some oil, because studies show that as many as two-thirds of couples or couples start with friends. Compared with romantic love at first sight, it is more common to have a long-term love.

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When Harry first met Sally, he asserted men and women could not be friends because the “sex part always gets in the way”.

When Harry first met Sally, he declared that men and women could not be friends because "they couldn't hide from sex."

Note: This refers to the classic 1989 romance film When Harry Meets Sally.

But new research suggests roughly two-thirds of couples start out as friends and maintain a platonic relationship for long periods before sparking a romance.

But new research shows that about two-thirds of couples or couples start out as friends and maintain platonic relationships for a long time before colliding with a spark of love.

Danu Anthony Stinson, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada, and her co-authors investigated the experience of nearly 1,900 university students and crowdsourced adults (including 677 who were married or in a common law partnership), all of whom were asked whether they were friends with their current romantic partner before they became romantically involved.

Danu Anthony Stintson, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria in Canada, and the study's co-authors surveyed the experiences of nearly 1,900 college students and adults involved in crowdsourcing, including 677 married or cohabiting people, and asked all respondents whether they were friends before they were with their current partners.

Most participants (68%) reported that their current or most recent romantic relationship began as a friendship. The rate of friends-first initiation was even higher among 20-somethings, with 85% of such couples saying their romance began as a friendship.

The majority of participants (68 percent) reported that they and their current or previous partner started as friends. Love that begins with friendship accounts for a higher proportion of people in their twenties, with 85 percent of couples or couples saying they were friends before they became lovers.

How does a platonic relationship turn romantic and what really is the distinction between friends and lovers is a question that is still being unpicked, Stinson said.

How platonic relationships turn into love, and where exactly the dividing line between friends and lovers lies, remains unanswered, Stinson said.

Some participants described holding hands, family introductions, going on trips together, cuddling by the fire, and even having sex, as friendship. Others categorised those exact behaviours as romantic.

Some participants defined holding hands, introducing each other to family, traveling together, snuggling up to the fire, and even having sex as things between friends, while others thought it was something that lovers do.

In the study, roughly 300 university students were also asked how long their “friends phase” lasted and whether they preferred to be friends before taking things in a romantic direction. On average, the “friends first” initiators were friends for nearly 22 months before the relationship turned romantic and almost half of the total sample thought that friends-first initiation was the best way to start a new romantic relationship, versus the other options presented such as meeting at a party or online, the researchers wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

In the study, published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, nearly 300 college students were asked how long their "friendship period" lasted and whether they would like to be friends before falling in love. The researchers write that friendships between couples or couples who started as friends lasted an average of nearly 22 months before turning into love. Compared to other options such as meeting at a party or online, nearly half of respondents believe that being friends first is the best way to start a new relationship.

Source: The Guardian

Translator & Editor: Dani