Can Men and Women Stay Friends?

Most Americans are positive about having friends of the opposite sex. Meetville.com (dating app to find the right person) polled 94,421 people in the period from 4/14/14 to 9/17/14.

The poll posed the question: “Can men and women be "just friends"?”, which captured attention of many participants around the world (USA - 81%, Canada - 2%, Britain - 5%, Australia - 3% and other countries - 9%).

The results of the poll indicate that majority (70%) claim to be able to enjoy such a relationship.

Lisa Shield, dating and relationship coach from Los Angeles, observes that todaymen and women interact all the time as just friends. “One thing to remember is that when one person only wants friendship and the other person wants romance, a friendship isn't possible. The person who wants romance will keep looking for a way to direct the relationship that way,” says Shield.

Additonal statistics, collected by meetville.com, reveals that among those who don’t believe in friendship of opposite sexes 63% were female respondents and only 37% - male.

Alex Cusper, Meetville service analyst, says that “the statistics may be influenced by the cliché that men want only sex. I can’t say women don’t believe in platonic relationship, but they tend to think few men are capable of being a part of them.”

Meetville, a leading mobile dating service, regularly conducts research among its users. Millions of people from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia answer hundreds of questions every month. You can find the results of the poll here. If you are interested in research on a particular topic, please contact us. Any reprint of the material should be followed by clickable links to the survey.