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The Price of Love Losing Two of Your Closest Friends

Having a new romantic partner typically results in losing contact with two of a person's closest friends on average. As time and attention is absorbed by the new romantic relationship, links with family and closest friends deteriorate when a person begins a new romantic relationship. Previous research has shown that most people typically have five very close relationships they can turn to for emotional or financial support in times of crisis, but those in romantic relationships on average only have four close relationships left, with one being the new romantic partner.

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Thiago Jardim Amantea
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131 views4 pages

The Price of Love Losing Two of Your Closest Friends

Having a new romantic partner typically results in losing contact with two of a person's closest friends on average. As time and attention is absorbed by the new romantic relationship, links with family and closest friends deteriorate when a person begins a new romantic relationship. Previous research has shown that most people typically have five very close relationships they can turn to for emotional or financial support in times of crisis, but those in romantic relationships on average only have four close relationships left, with one being the new romantic partner.

Uploaded by

Thiago Jardim Amantea
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The price of love?

Losing two of

your closest friends

Research reveals that, on average, having a new


romantic partner pushes out two close friends
from your inner circle

Falling in love comes at the cost of losing close


friends, because romantic partners absorb time that
would otherwise be invested in platonic
relationships, researchers say.

A new partner pushes out two close friends on


average, leaving lovers with a smaller inner circle of
people they can turn to in times of crisis, a study
found.

The research, led by Robin Dunbar, head of the


Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary
Anthropology at Oxford University, showed that
men and women were equally likely to lose their
closest friends when they started a new
relationship.
Previous research by Dunbar's group has shown
that people typically have five very close
relationships – that is, people whom they would
turn to if they were in emotional or financial
trouble.

"If you go into a romantic relationship, it costs you


two friends. Those who have romantic relationships,
instead of having the typical five 'core set' of
relationships only have four. And of those, one is the
new person who's come into their life," said Dunbar.
The study, submitted to the journal Personal
Relationships, was designed to investigate how
people trade off spending time with one person over
another and suggests that links with family and
closest friends suffer when people start a romantic
relationship.
Dunbar's team used an internet-based
questionnaire to quiz 428 women and 112 men about
their relationships. In total, 363 of the participants
had romantic partners. The findings suggest that a
new love interest has to compensate for the loss of
two close friends.

Speaking at the British Science Festival in


Birmingham, Professor Dunbar said: "This was a
surprise for us. We hadn't expected it.

"If you don't see people, your emotional engagement


with them drops off and does so quickly. What I
suspect is that your attention is so wholly focused
on the romantic partner you don't get to see the
other folks you had a lot to do with before, and so
some of those relationships start to deteriorate."
1. Do you believe that love can be understood by
looking at the brain and chemicals?
2. How is attraction different than love?
3. Why do you think some people fall out of love?
4. What is the most romantic movie you know?
5. In public, how much affection is too much?
6. How is showing love different now from in the
past?
7. In all cultures there are famous love stories (i.e.
Romeo and Juliet). What is a famous love story
in your country?
8. When you see a couple, how do you know they
are in love?
9. Do you believe in love at first sight?
10. What do you think of valentine’s day?
11. Do you think people change after getting
married?
12. Do you think religion influences marriage? If so,
in what ways?
13. Do you think that all adults should be married?
14. Do you think that you can you find eternal love
through the Internet?

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