Interpersonal Competition in Friendships

Though ubiquitous in American life, competition has been neglected in studies of friendship. Conceiving of interpersonal competition as a dyadic process motivated by self-evaluation, the authors analyzed survey data from a random sample of 162 undergraduates at a US college who were asked about their closest friends of the same and opposite sex. Results indicated that male friendship dyads were most competitive followed by cross-sex and female dyads. Among same-sex friends, competition was negatively associated with academic class and positively associated with number of role relationships. Intimacy and companionship had positive effects and competition and conflict had negative effects on friendship satisfaction. Due to lower intimacy and greater competition in male friendships, men were less satisfied with same-sex friends than women.