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Definition
Unrelated person of the opposite sex for whom one feels affection or esteem.
Introduction
Opposite-sex friendship is a historically novel relationship between a man and a woman that is supposed to be platonic and nonsexual. Evolutionary psychology considers opposite-sex friendships through two perspectives: as a specific type of friendship that has its own psychological adaptations and as a type of relationship “ruled” by mating strategies used in an evolutionary novel social situation. Considering sexual attraction is often experienced in this type of relationship, existing research mostly confirms the second perspective.
Historical and Social Context
Opposite-sex friendships are relationships between men and women that present a fairly new development in social relations and have only recently become a subject of research. Additionally, opposite-sex friends are less common than same-sex friends. Historically, having an...
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References
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Salkicevic, S. (2017). Opposite-Sex Friend. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1602-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1602-1
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