In particular, couples now expect their relationships to promote personal growth and help individuals fulfill their own goals. We hold our relationships to higher standards than we have in previous decades. Once a romantic couple forms, we’re more likely to look for more egalitarian splits of power and divisions of labor. Compared to previous generations, today’s heterosexual men and women are more accustomed to thinking of each other as friends on equal footing, even outside of the romantic realm. The difference in best-friend/love rates – almost doubling over the past 20 years – could just be an artifact of the published research’s college student sample.īut expectations for modern relationships have evolved in the intervening years. In a 1993 study, only 44 percent of college students indicated their romantic partner was also their best bud. The overall numbers from this recent poll dwarf the earlier reported rate of best-friend romantic partners. Men and women had similar rates, while younger respondents were slightly less likely than older respondents to view their partner as their best friend. For those who are currently married, the rate was even higher. To help figure out how many best-friend couples are out there, we asked 801 adults across the United States the following question: “Do you consider your partner to be your best friend or do you call somebody else your best friend?”Īmong adults currently in a romantic relationship, the vast majority (83 percent) considered their current partner to be their best friend. How many people feel as though they have attained that type of ideal? And do psychologists confirm this new paradigm is a good one to strive for? I enlisted the help of Monmouth University Polling Institute to investigate.
When you look at seemingly happy celebrity couples like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, or Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow, not only do they appear to be in love, but they also seem to genuinely enjoy hanging out together. With your BFF as your romantic partner, you get the best of both worlds, someone with whom you can laugh, share your life and cuddle.
Having a romantic partner who is also your best friend potentially sounds perfect.
Being someone’s BFF is a big deal – you don’t hand over the other half of your “Best Friends” necklace to just anyone.