Benefit of Burden? : Attraction in Emerging and Middle-Aged Adults' Cross-Sex Friendships

Abstract

The degree to which romantic and sexual attraction manifest in cross-sex friendships varies, as do the proffered explanations for the existence of attraction. We propose that, because cross-sex friendships may be historically recent, men's and women's evolved mating strategies are activated in the context of cross-sex friendships and influence, at least in part, men's and women's cross-sex friendship experiences. If evolved mating mechanisms are activated in the context of a cross-sex friendship, then our predictions about interactions between cross-sex friends should follow from research and theory on the structure of men's and women's mating strategies.