'I Like you... as a Friend': The Role of Attraction in Cross-Sex Friendship

Reeder, Heidi

doi:10.1177/0265407500173002

Cited by 53 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Research has found that a considerable percentage of university students have engaged in sexual activity with a friend, and prevalence rates have ranged from 49 to 62% (Afifi & Faulkner, 2000;Mongeau et al, 2003;Reeder, 2000). The current study sought to replicate these findings regarding the prevalence of FWB among college students.…”

Section: Preliminary Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Negotiating a Friends with Benefits Relationship

2007

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Friends with benefits (FWB) refers to "friends" who have sex. Study 1 (N = 125) investigated the prevalence of these relationships and why individuals engaged in this relationship. Results indicated that 60% of the individuals surveyed have had this type of relationship, that a common concern was that sex might complicate friendships by bringing forth unreciprocated desires for romantic commitment, and ironically that these relationships were desirable because they incorporated trust and comfort while avoiding romantic commitment. Study 2 (N = 90) assessed the relational negotiation strategies used by participants in these relationships. The results indicated that people in FWB relationships most often avoided explicit relational negotiation. Thus, although common, FWB relationships are often problematic for the same reasons that they are attractive.

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Section: Preliminary Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Negotiating a Friends with Benefits Relationship

2007

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“…Sexual attraction to friends is, however, more prominent at the onset of the relationship for women and reduces with time (Reeder, 2000). Our friend narratives described a sexual interaction with a close, long-term friend and may, therefore, have been less sexually-arousing to women.…”

Section: Relationship Contextmentioning

confidence: 85%

Effects of Gender and Relationship Context in Audio Narratives on Genital and Subjective Sexual Response in Heterosexual Women and Men

Chivers

Timmers

2012

Arch Sex Behav

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Previous research suggests that heterosexual women's sexual arousal patterns are nonspecific; heterosexual women demonstrate genital arousal to both preferred and nonpreferred sexual stimuli. These patterns may, however, be related to the intense and impersonal nature of the audiovisual stimuli used. The current study investigated the gender specificity of heterosexual women's sexual arousal in response to less intense sexual stimuli, and also examined the role of relationship context on both women's and men's genital and subjective sexual responses. Assessments were made of 43 heterosexual women's and 9 heterosexual men's genital and subjective sexual arousal to audio narratives describing sexual or neutral encounters with female and male strangers, friends, or long-term relationship partners. Consistent with research employing audiovisual sexual stimuli, men demonstrated a category-specific pattern of genital and subjective arousal with respect to gender, while women showed a nonspecific pattern of genital arousal, yet reported a category-specific pattern of subjective arousal. Heterosexual women's nonspecific genital response to gender cues is not a function of stimulus intensity or relationship context. Relationship context did significantly affect women's genital sexual arousal--arousal to both female and male friends was significantly lower than to the stranger and long-term relationship contexts--but not men's. These results suggest that relationship context may be a more important factor in heterosexual women's physiological sexual response than gender cues.

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“…To assess physical attraction, we created four items based on Reeder's (2000) four types of attraction in cross-sex friendship ("I feel close and connected to this person as a friend, but nothing more," "I think my friend is attractive in general, but I don't feel the attraction myself," "My friend is not sexually attractive to me," all reverse coded, and "I feel physically attracted to my friend"). Participants rated their agreement with each statement on a five point scale (5 = strongly agree; 1 = strongly disagree) and we averaged across items to compute the scale,  = .84.…”

Section: Methods Participants and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting Responses to Bids for Sexual and Romantic Escalation in Cross-Sex Friendships

Akbulut

Weger

2015

The Journal of Social Psychology

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The transition from a platonic cross-sex friendship to a more intimate sexual and/or romantic relationship is an interesting, yet somewhat understudied, phenomenon. In this study, we introduce and test relationship adaptation theory to predict cross-sex friends' predispositions for reciprocating a bid for escalation to an exclusive dating or friends with benefits (FWB) relationship. Analyses of data collected from 288 participants found participants' dating status, anticipated rewards from escalating the relationship, expected social disapproval, friendship quality, and their friend's attractiveness predicted disposition to reciprocating a cross-sex friend's hypothetical bid for escalation to an exclusive romantic escalation. In addition, participants' biological sex, anticipated rewards from escalating the relationship, expected social disapproval, sexual permissiveness, and their friend's attractiveness emerged as predictors of disposition toward a friend's hypothetical bid to escalate a platonic friendship to a FWB relationship.

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'I Like you... as a Friend': The Role of Attraction in Cross-Sex Friendship

Cited by 53 publications

References 23 publications

Negotiating a Friends with Benefits Relationship

Negotiating a Friends with Benefits Relationship

Effects of Gender and Relationship Context in Audio Narratives on Genital and Subjective Sexual Response in Heterosexual Women and Men

Predicting Responses to Bids for Sexual and Romantic Escalation in Cross-Sex Friendships

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