Full Title: Why Does One Friend Have to Be ‘Best’?
Highlights
But the truth is that many people don’t have a single favorite friend. In one survey, Americans named an average of three closest companions, and that number was even higher in other countries. Studies show that people with networks of friends can turn to different people in order to get different perspectives, or just because one person might be busy. And yet, the trope of best-friendship persists. It encourages us to quantify and compare relationships that are each uniquely meaningful and challenging. Even in adulthood, it hurts people’s feelings.
So why are we so taken with dynamic duos? Perhaps it’s because they mirror a long-held romantic ideal in American culture: monogamous partnership, in which love is considered more real for its lack of competition. But many people’s ideas about romantic relationships are changing. Can our friendship paradigms change with them? ()
Note: This article looks at why the idea of having a single “best friend” persists even though studies have shown that people have an average of three closest companions, and even more in other countries. The article suggests that this dynamic duo trope mirrors the romantic ideal of monogamous partnership, and questions if our friendship paradigms can shift to reflect the changes in people’s ideas about relationships.
