Friends who hook up may seem to some to have the perfect setup: commitment-free sex, a known partner and the freedom to still mingle in the dating scene.
But a new study on friends with benefits, or FWB, found that getting busy with a friend has its positives and its negatives.
Tim Levine, a communications professor at Michigan State University, and Melissa Bisson, a former Michigan State graduate student, surveyed 125 Michigan State University students on FWB.
The study, published in the current issue of "Archives of Sexual Behavior" found that 60 percent of the students surveyed had engaged in a FWB relationship.
The researchers analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of being in a FWB relationship based on those who had been in that situation.
They found that FWB relationships allow for a person to have commitment-free sex with someone who is perceived as "safer" and "more comfortable" than a person they have never met before, Levine says.
"No commitment" was the most popular reason why surveyed students decided to get busy with their friends, and the opportunity to have sex was the runner-up.
Communications senior Ryan Bragg, who has been in a FWB relationship, says no-strings-attached sex is often seen as a primary advantage of FWB.
"You don't have any ties to that relationship," Bragg says.
But even though FWB situations are often entered with the intentions of commitment-free sex, surveyed students ranked "develop[ing] feelings" as the biggest disadvantage of FWB hookups.
And those feelings are a taboo in conversation, says Paul Mongeau, an ASU communications professor who has also studied FWB. "Friends-with-benefits relationships are really difficult, in part because 90 percent [of people in FWB relationships] don't talk about [the status of their relationship]," Mongeau says.
Bragg says he agrees: awkwardness often arises between friends who end up between the sheets. "It can be hard to keep feelings out," he says. "It's also hard when the benefits are what drive the relationship."
No matter how much someone likes getting hot and heavy with a buddy, the chances of the late-night booty calls lasting are slim, Mongeau says.
"It's relatively rare where people can make friends-with-benefits relationships work for a long time," he says.
