Infatuation Rules
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Does dating start as friends?

But new research suggests roughly two-thirds of couples start out as friends and maintain a platonic relationship for long periods before sparking a romance.

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When Harry first met Sally, he asserted men and women could not be friends because the “sex part always gets in the way”. But new research suggests roughly two-thirds of couples start out as friends and maintain a platonic relationship for long periods before sparking a romance. While the coming together of two strangers – whether through sideways glances at a coffee shop or a swipe of a dating app – is well chronicled in film and the focus of much sociological research, not as much is known about choosing a partner that is going to work for you, said Danu Anthony Stinson, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada. Stinson and her co-authors investigated the experience of nearly 1,900 university students and crowdsourced adults (including 677 who were married or in a common law partnership), all of whom were asked whether they were friends with their current romantic partner before they became romantically involved. Most participants (68%) reported that their current or most recent romantic relationship began as a friendship, regardless of gender, age, education levels or ethnic groups. The rate of friends-first initiation was even higher among 20-somethings and within LGBTQ+ communities, with 85% of such couples saying their romance began as a friendship. How does a platonic relationship turn romantic and what really is the distinction between friends and lovers is a question that is still being unpicked, Stinson said. The written accounts of study participants were hilariously all over the place, she said. Some described holding hands, family introductions, going on trips together, cuddling by the fire, and even having sex, as friendship. Others categorised those exact behaviours as romantic. “So there is a huge, messy, blurry line between friendship and romance … it emphasises how you really cannot define for somebody else what a friendship is versus what a romance is,” she said. “They define it for themselves.” In the study, roughly 300 university students were also asked how long their “friends phase” lasted and whether they preferred to be friends before taking things in a romantic direction. On average, the “friends first” initiators were friends for nearly 22 months before the relationship turned romantic and almost half of the total sample thought that friends-first initiation was the best way to start a new romantic relationship, versus the other options presented such as meeting at a party or online, the researchers wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. “You get people complaining about being ‘friend-zoned’ … based on this idea that relationships between men and women are somehow, by default, sexual,” said Stinson. “But when we actually ask people, they say they have friendships with people – of all genders – that they could potentially theoretically be attracted to one day. Sometimes they act on them and sometimes they don’t.”

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How do you kiss passionately in bed?

Feel what your partner is doing with their mouth and try to copy their movements. Let yourself linger between kisses. Kiss your partner once, slowly, letting it last for a few seconds. Then slowly draw your lips away, keeping them close enough to your partner's lips so that they are almost touching (but aren't).

This article was co-authored by Eddy Baller . Eddy Baller is a Dating Coach based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Coaching since 2011, Eddy specializes in confidence building, advanced social skills and relationships. He runs his own dating consulting and coaching service named Conquer and Win, the only BBB accredited dating coaching business in Vancouver. Conquer and Win helps men worldwide have the love lives they deserve. His work has been featured in The Art of Manliness, LifeHack, and POF among others. This article has been viewed 5,134,508 times.

Article Summary

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To kiss passionately, try starting out slow and gentle, then ramping up the intensity. For example, you might start with a long, lingering kiss on the lips. Then pull back a little bit, so that your lips are still almost touching your partner’s, and wait a few seconds to build the anticipation for the next kiss. Next, try opening your lips slightly and see if your partner responds by doing the same. If so, you can try lightly touching their lips or tongue with the tip of your tongue, and eventually progressing to a deeper French kiss. You can also try gently nibbling your partner’s bottom lip or kissing their jaw, neck, or shoulder. Remember, kissing isn’t just about what you do with your lips. To really boost the heat level, get your hands involved, too. Try running your hands through your partner’s hair, caressing their face or body, or wrapping your arms around them and holding them close while you kiss. To learn how to increase the passion in your kiss with necking, read on!

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