**Men and Women Form Lifelong Friendships Differently, Study Finds**
Men and women typically meet their best friend for life in their late teens, but they tend to shed most of their other friends at different stages of life. According to new research, men start losing friends from their support group as early as their mid-20s, with the circle of people they rely on dramatically shrinking. In contrast, women tend to hold on to their closest confidantes well into their late 40s, only beginning to lose them when grandchildren arrive.
Researchers found that around 75 percent of women have a best friend—someone they have known, on average, since the age of 18. Men’s best male friends, meanwhile, are people they typically met around the age of 19. For both men and women, the majority of their best friends are of the same sex. This insight comes from a study involving 757 participants across the UK.
Professor Robin Dunbar, who led the research at Oxford University, explained the differing patterns:
“Men’s cliques decrease dramatically in size from the time they typically marry, suggesting they lose contact with even their close male friends after getting married, which is not the case for married women. Women’s circle of close people starts to become smaller in their 50s, which may be when they start to focus on grandchildren.”
The study, published in the journal *Evolution and Human Behaviour*, also found that women are significantly more likely to say they have a “best friend.” Nearly three-quarters of women reported having a best friend, compared to 59 percent of men. Among women’s best friends, 81 percent were female, while 73 percent of men’s best friends were male.
Interestingly, the study found that men become more likely to report having a best friend as they age, whereas the likelihood decreases for women. People also tended to form opposite-sex best friendships later than same-sex ones. On average, women met their male best friends at age 23, and men met their female best friends at age 26.
Men’s inner social circles were found to be more “homogeneous,” meaning their close friends often come from the same social groups, such as workplaces or sports clubs. Professor Dunbar elaborated:
“This reinforces evidence that the male social world is more impersonal and club-like, whereas women’s tends to revolve around more personalised, one-on-one relationships. In the male world, who you are is less important than what you are, i.e., which ‘club’ you belong to, whereas for women, who you are as a person seems to be more important than what you are.”
Women were found to have a larger inner circle than men, with about 20 percent more people. Additionally, for men, those who are happier in romantic relationships tend to have smaller inner circles, suggesting that a partner may be more important than friends to men.
This study sheds light on the contrasting ways men and women form and maintain friendships throughout life, highlighting the deeper emotional connection often involved in female friendships compared to the more group-oriented nature of male friendships.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15118563/Women-meet-best-pal-18-stay-friends-grandchildren-arrive-men-start-shedding-theirs-20s.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490