In addition to budding romances, he said, the friends may also be former lovers who occasionally see each other or they may be people who hang out at the same places and now and then end up wrapped around each other, even though they are not really friends.
Mongeau said the study seemed to have captured the dissonant, circular thinking that characterized what it felt like for a friendship to enter treacherous territory.
"There's clearly a strong desire to be with this other person, who fills important needs," he added. "But at the same time, it's as if I'm saying, 'OK, I'm not going to get passionately involved - because then it's at risk of being a real romance.'"
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