Friends with Benefits? Study Says Attraction Between Friends More of a Burden

Perhaps men and women can't just be friends after all.

Attraction is common between people in opposite-sex friendships, and such feelings make these friendships more of a burden than a bonus, a new study suggests.

When participants were asked to list benefits and drawbacks of having opposite-sex friends, 32 percent listed feelings of attraction as a cost, while just 6 percent listed these feelings as a benefit.

Women were more likely than men to say attraction was a drawback: 47 percent of women ages 18 to 23 listed attraction as a cost of an opposite-sex friendship, while 22 percent of men said the same.

Opposite-sex friendships may also harm romantic relationships. In the study, 38 percent of women and 25 percent of men ages 27 to 50 said jealousy from their romantic partners was one cost of maintaining an opposite-sex friendship.

In addition, the more attraction that people felt in an opposite-sex friendship, the less satisfied they were with their current romantic relationship, the researchers said.