Do Women have more friends than Men?

I recently had to figure out whether men or women have more friends in general. My personal bias is that the average woman has more friends than the average man, but lets have a look at what the research shows:

I came across an interesting phenomenon on why your friends have more friends than you do. The gist of the analysis is that you are more likely to be friends with someone who has more friends than with someone who has fewer friends. To rephrase that, you probably have, in your social circle, someone who has a lot of friends (a connector) who is tipping the mean number of friends that the average person has. But that doesn't really answer our question. The connector could be a male or female...but which is more likely?

The advent of online networks has made such research possible. Based on studies done on online social networks, there is a higher likelihood for a connector to be female. Also Women who are "social networkers" also tend to have more friends than their male counterparts. Interestingly, when it came to the extreme end of friend-making, ie a huge number of friends(1000-10000++), there were more men (Super/uber connnectors) who had these networks of friends than ladies. But these guys were a rarity, constituting less than 1% of the sample set.

Why do women appear to be have more friends?

Part of the reason could because of biology. In stressful situations, the fight or flight response is triggered in males. Women have a larger repertoire of behaviours, and the research is showing that a female response to stress is to gather with other women instead, whereas in men it would be to seek isolation. You can read the paper here. Women with social networks that are heavily female populated tend to live longer as well. (Women tend to give better care than men)

Women also gather with other women for safety. Interestingly, the research also highlights that when a woman is given the chance of support from an unfamiliar male or being by her herself, she would prefer to be by herself. (Men are seen as a potential source of danger, eg spousal abuse etc.). 

Thanks for pointing this out. But how is this useful to me...?

Well, for one, if you are planning to grow the number of friends you have, you are better off befriending women than men, since they have on average more friends that they can introduce to you than the average male.

Another interesting result of women having more friends is that they can cope romantic relationships better. Simon and Barett show that:

Young men are more reactive to the quality of ongoing relationships because romantic partners are their primary sources of intimacy, in contrast to young women who tend to have intimate relationships with family and friends. 

Young men also feel more of the emotional strain in a relationship because they invest more in a relationship and are less familiar with navigating romantic relationships. In the Aura Academy, we are taught to control investment levels (the ladies as well as our own), so a lot of this social arts stuff has very practical as well as emotional value.


Just good to know:)


XXX, 
Echelon


Singapore Dating Academy: AURA