All posts tagged: Platonic

Does romantic rejection hurt more than platonic rejection? A new study says no

Does romantic rejection hurt more than platonic rejection? A new study says no

Published by José Betancourt

Most people assume that rejection by a potential romantic partner is far more painful than rejection by a prospective friend. However, new research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests that, when rejection is actually experienced, the emotional impact is remarkably similar regardless of whether it comes from a romantic or a platonic source. Romantic rejection is often seen as uniquely devastating, in part because modern societies place heavy emotional expectations on romantic relationships. However, researchers have long noted that humans are broadly motivated by a fundamental need for belonging. Social rejection tends to hurt across all contexts because it threatens shared psychological needs, such as feeling valued, in control, and meaningful. What has been less clear is whether rejection by a potential romantic partner is more painful than rejection in a friendship context. Given the intense expectations placed on romantic relationships—which are often expected to fulfill a wide range of emotional and personal needs—it has seemed plausible that being denied such a relationship would be especially distressing. To examine these assumptions, researchers …

The Power and Peril of Platonic Male Touch

The Power and Peril of Platonic Male Touch

Published by Jenni Sidey

Men are lonely in ways we don’t quite know how to talk about. Despite unprecedented material comfort, modern life has left many men socially undernourished. We live longer, eat more, and work in safer conditions than any generation before us. Yet rates of loneliness, depression, and despair among men continue to rise. This contradiction is often framed as a psychological problem: Men don’t open up, don’t communicate, don’t ask for help. But the problem, I argue, isn’t simply emotional. It’s physical—and specifically, it’s about touch. Touch is one of the most basic human needs. From infancy onward, physical contact regulates our nervous systems, communicates safety, and reinforces belonging. For many men today, however, platonic physical touch has become fraught, awkward, or altogether absent. Hugs are abbreviated, affection hedged with jokes. Comfort is withheld unless justified by sports, alcohol, drugs, or crisis. This wasn’t always the case. When Men Could Be Close Before the late 19th century, physical affection between men was common, public, and largely unremarkable. Men held hands, embraced, leaned into one another, shared …

Industry’s Myha’la and Marisa Abela on Fighting, Friendship, and Platonic Kissing in the Club

Industry’s Myha’la and Marisa Abela on Fighting, Friendship, and Platonic Kissing in the Club

Published by Sam Flores

“We are old now,” Myha’la says with a smile to her Industry costar Marisa Abela on Zoom. Considering the fact that both actors are 29 years old, that sentiment is far from true. However, four seasons into the buzzy British banking drama, it does feel like we’re a long way from the early days of Industry when their respective characters, Harper Stern and Yasmin Kara-Hanani, were first-years on the trading floor at Pierpoint & Co, diving headfirst into the wild world of finance. In the penultimate episode of Industry’s fourth season, “Points of Emphasis,” Harper and Yas run through the gamut of human emotions. They begin the episode as business adversaries, hurling insults at one another, and end the episode as friends dancing till dawn in a perfect girl’s night out, sealed with a kiss—a fact that makes both actors giggle, recalling the shoot. For Abela, the club scene was both sentimental and nostalgic. “It felt like season one of Industry in that we’re just two girls dancing in a club,” she says. “It felt …