{"id":77243,"date":"2017-11-30T17:09:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T23:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=77243"},"modified":"2026-10-06T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:54:00","slug":"understanding-male-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/friendship\/understanding-male-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #360: Understanding Male Friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a common trope that adult men don\u2019t value friendship as much as their female counterparts, and that men really don\u2019t need or want friends like women do. But my guest today<\/span> argues that assumption is wrong and comes from viewing friendship from a strictly female point of view. In fact, based on his research, most adult men very much want good friends but just don\u2019t know how to make them. What\u2019s more, he says, male friendships look different from female ones and we should stop judging the quality of male friendships based on how women do them. <\/span><\/p>\n

My guest’s name is Geoffrey Greif, and he\u2019s a sociologist and author of the book Buddy System: Understanding Male Friendships<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Today<\/span> on the show, Geoffrey shares the common myths about male friendships, the benefits men get from having friends, and how male friendships are different from female friendships. He then discusses the four types of friends a man will have in his life, how friendship changes as men age, and how fathers have a huge influence on whether their sons will have friends as adults. Geoffrey then shares his research on how couples navigate friendships together and why some brothers are best friends, while others don’t talk to each other for years.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a common trope that adult men don\u2019t value friendship as much as their female counterparts, and that men really don\u2019t need or want friends like women do. But my guest today argues that assumption is wrong and comes from viewing friendship from a strictly female point of view. In fact, based on his research, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42397,156,42379],"tags":[42290],"class_list":["post-77243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friendship","category-podcast","category-social","tag-friendship"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/360-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/360-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/360-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/360-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/360-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding Male Friendships | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most adult men very much want good friends but just don\u2019t know how to make them. 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