Cross-sex friendship
[citation needed] Cross-sex friendships play a large role in social relations of both men and women.
[3] This evolutionary theory predicts that cross-sex friendships are formed by males for sexual access and by females for protection.
[4] This demonstrates one way in which cross-sex friendships serve, in part, as a long term mating acquisition strategy.
Having more opportunities to mate is an evolutionary advantage, however, being attracted to a cross-sex friend creates negative social consequences.
This is especially true for younger adults who are attracted to a cross-sex friend, because these people report less satisfaction in their current romantic relationship.
Most popular television shows and movies suggest that the goal of forming cross-sex friendships is a romantic relationship.
While diverse cultures view relationships across genders differently, studies have shown that similar ideals for friendship seem to exist around the world in areas such as the United States, Europe, and East Asia.
[7] During adolescence, a distinction starts to form between romantic relationships and platonic friendships, which is influenced by personal experience as well as exposure to media and popular culture.
This common conception leads a small percentage of the population to believe that men and women cannot exist in solely platonic friendships.
[6] Kim Elsesser and Letitia Anne Peplau found that the professional workplace environment and heightened sexual harassment awareness can hinder cross-sex friendship formation.
[8] When coworkers or other third parties see a cross-sex friendship in the workplace as romantic, this relationship is often viewed negatively, hurting both the male and female worker.
For instance, a male management consultant interviewed by Elsesser and Peplau stated that he commonly segregates by gender what type of jokes or humor he expresses in the workplace in fear that it might offend a female coworker.
On the contrary, women often say that while they do not feel as though they censor their conversation as much, they can often sense such reservations and unwillingness to relax in men, making friendships awkward and harder to develop.
Friendships can provide information access, networking and emotional support to any individual all of which are valuable for job performance.
In a study by Halatsis and Christakis, participants cited social pressures and emotional vulnerability as reasons for sexual attraction arising in a cross-sex friendship.
[4] In this regard, males have historically been perceived as having an advantage in cross-sex friendships because the number of resources they have to offer in the relationship exceeds those of females.
In this regard, the men within these cross-sex friendships would devote time and energy to caring for and protecting their potential children, which would be beneficial to the females in these relationships.
If the peers within their social network of friends want or believe that the cross-sex friendship is romantic, issues could potentially arise in other relationships.
Therefore, the surrounding social network's opinions of the cross-sex friendship can change the degree that the friends have to worry about the audience challenge.
In other words, as the network's support of the cross-sex friendship as a strictly platonic relationship increases, the audience challenge decreases.
[15] One of the main attributes to this finding was that members of the cross-sex friendships were able to effectively communicate with each other as well as their social network about the nature of their relationship and how they were being perceived.
One study by Kovacs, Parker, and Hoffman, they found that children who primarily had friends of the opposite sex were perceived to be more aggressive, yet less shy by others.
Results from Kovacs, Parker, and Hoffman's study show that children who have a best friend that is the opposite sex have poorer social functioning abilities.
Yet, when children have friends primarily of the same sex, but some cross-sex friendships, they tend to be more well-adjusted and have stronger social skills.
[19] Another study by Ami Flam Kuttler, Annette M. La Greca, and Mitchell J Prinstein surveyed 223 students from grades 10 through 12.
The study concluded that although the number of cross-sex friendships in adolescents increase with age, both girls and boys felt a sense of stronger companionship and prosocial support with their friends of the same sex.
[13] With the sexual component, some friends are hesitant to enter into romantic relationships due to the anticipated disapproval of their social network of peers.
Thus, potentially falling out of touch with members of one's own social network if the romantic relationship did not work out is too costly a risk for some cross-sex friends, even if they have engaged in sexual interactions.
Today, men and women interact in non-romantic, supportive ways in all types of contexts: work, sports, education, and hobbies, yet these unions are not based on sexual intentions.
Another controversial question surrounding cross-sex friendships that is often raised is: after two romantic partners end their relationship — or more colloquially, "break up" — can they still be platonic friends?
