Study: ‘Bromances’ are a lot more intimate than you would think

A study about sex roles looked at the friendships of heterosexual undergraduate men in the U.K., finding that the “bromance” includes emotional intimacy and nonsexual physical closeness – even kissing and cuddling. The theory is that a decrease in homophobia has influenced this rise in affection between straight friends.

The qualitative research came from “semi-structured interviews” with 30 male undergrads in sports programs at one university. The students described bromances as being closer to family relationships or romances than ordinary friendships with straight men.

“Participants described a bromance as being more emotionally intimate, physically demonstrative, and based upon unrivalled trust and cohesion compared to their other friendships,” the study said.

Brad Staggs, Kal Elsebai and Kris Cruz attempted to define the “bromance” on Tuesday’s “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson.” Kal explained that a bromance is a close but nonsexual relationship between two men that means being able to talk about what’s going on in your life and caring about each other.

Kris wondered if they should demonstrate for listeners by staging a picture similar to one featured in the article about the study. “Should we just, me and Kal, recreate this picture and then we’ll tweet it out?” he asked jokingly.

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