IT TAKES 90 HOURS TO MAKE A NEW FRIEND

(April, 2018) According to a new study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships:
– You have to spend about 50 hours with someone before you can consider them an acquaintance; 90 hours before you consider them a real friend; and around 200 hours of hanging out before they reach BFF status. The study surveyed 429 online volunteers who had moved within the past six months. They were asked to identify someone they had met in their new location, how much time they spent together in a typical week, and they also rated the prospective friend on how close they considered them to be, on a scale from “acquaintance” or “friend of a friend” up to “good” or “best friend.”
– The study also found that there are two kinds of relationships that form: “relationships of choice,” which are the ones we want to have, and “closed-system relationships,” with people you inevitably must see, like neighbors and colleagues. For example, most people probably have spent 200 hours alongside a colleague at work, but they wouldn’t necessarily ask them to grab coffee or drinks after work.
* (Everybody sit quiet for a second) What? Why is nobody saying anything? Why are you looking at me like that?
* 90 hours to make a friend? Who has that kind of time?
* On the other hand, you can LOSE a friend in about 25 seconds by saying the words “Can you help me move?”
* If you can spare $20 I’ll be your friend right away.
* How many hours do you have to avoid somebody before they finally take the hint that they aren’t your friend? Er – I’m just asking… for a friend.