Benefits, but with doubts

Friends-with-benefits relationships are commitment-free ... until feelings develop

Friends who hook up may seem to some to have the perfect setup: commitment-free sex, a known partner and the freedom to still mingle in the dating scene.

But a new study on friends with benefits, or FWB, found that getting busy with a friend has its positives and its negatives.

Tim Levine, a communications professor at Michigan State University, and Melissa Bisson, a former Michigan State graduate student, surveyed 125 Michigan State University students on FWB.

The study, published in the current issue of "Archives of Sexual Behavior" found that 60 percent of the students surveyed had engaged in a FWB relationship.

The researchers analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of being in a FWB relationship based on those who had been in that situation.

They found that FWB relationships allow for a person to have commitment-free sex with someone who is perceived as "safer" and "more comfortable" than a person they have never met before, Levine says.

"No commitment" was the most popular reason why surveyed students decided to get busy with their friends, and the opportunity to have sex was the runner-up. Read on >>