New study reveals why and when straight women form close friendships with gay men https://t.co/xeS71Dl5FP pic.twitter.com/MVmfCb0agr

— PsyPost.org (@PsyPost) December 2, 2015

The research affirmed that women place more trust in dating advice from a gay male friend than from heterosexual men because gay men have fewer ulterior mating motives. Also, women are more likely to trust and befriend gay men when they are in a highly competitive dating environment, such as a university with more female students than male students, the studies showed.

“This line of research provides novel experimental evidence that there is more to the gay male-straight female friendship than just what we see on TV – certain social psychological processes are, indeed, driving these relationships in real life,” said Eric Russell, the paper’s lead author, a doctoral student, and graduate teaching assistant in the UTA Department of Psychology.