Skip to main content

Ready for a Romantic Relationship? Your Friends' Opinions Matter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Feb 13, 2025.

By Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Feb. 13, 2025 -- This Valentine's Day, are you ready for something real or still playing the field?

New research suggests your friends probably share similar notions about your readiness for lasting love.

Researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing tracked data on nearly 800 young adults embedded in friend groups.

Participants answered questions about their own readiness for a relationship, how ready they thought their various friends were, and each friend's "attachment style."

Attachment styles can be secure or insecure, the researchers explained. Someone with an insecure attachment style typically has higher levels of anxiety and/or avoidance.

According to the study, friends tended to agree as to whether a particular member of the group was ready for a solid relationship or not.

If a friend wasn't thought to be ready, they were often perceived to have an insecure attachment style.

“Friendships affect so many parts of our life -- not just our health and happiness, but also our romantic prospects. Friends can constrain or facilitate who we date. They can also help our romantic relationships flourish or subtly and not-so-subtly undermine them,” study co-author William Chopik, associate professor of psychology at the university, said.

He believes that friends' “judgments of readiness likely explain all sorts of reasons why friends help and hurt our chances of finding love.”

Chopik and co-author Hyewon Yang hope the study can help the lovelorn better understand how their friends' opinions shape their outlook on relationships.

“Friends play a key role in forming and maintaining romantic relationships, from introductions to advice. However, there is rarely a chance to know how they perceive us,” Yang, a psychology doctoral candidate at the university, said.

“I hope this study offers a holistic understanding of commitment readiness from a social network perspective, while emphasizing the vital role of friends in pursuing, developing and maintaining romantic relationships,” she added.

The findings were published recently in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Sources

  • University of Michigan, news release, Feb. 10, 2025

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted February 2025

Read this next

HHS Employees Offered as Much as $25K To Leave Jobs

TUESDAY, March 11, 2025 -- In a sweeping effort to downsize the federal workforce, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has offered buyouts of up to $25,000 to...

Free COVID-19 Test Program Stops Taking Orders

TUESDAY, March 11, 2025 -- The U.S. government program that provides free at-home COVID tests is no longer accepting orders. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and...

NIH Cuts Funding for Studies on Vaccine Hesitancy and Acceptance

TUESDAY, March 11, 2025 -- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is cutting or canceling more than 40 grants focused on vaccine hesitancy and ways to increase vaccine...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.