"Friends with benefits" (FWB) relationships consist of friends who are sexually, but not romantically, involved. In other words, such relationships are comprised of persons who engage in sexual activity on occasion, but otherwise have a basic friendship (Mongeau, Ramirez, & Vorell, 2003). On the surface, such relationships might seem to carry many of the defining features of a true romance, such as intimacy and sexual passion, but it is important to recognize that FWB partners do not consider their involvements to be romantic relationships. Rather, FWB relationships are perhaps best regarded as friendships in which the partners involved have casual sex with one another. Little research has examined FWB relationships, but they are important to study for several reasons. First, from an applied standpoint, FWB relationships (just like other types of casual sexual relationships) likely have implications for public health. Casual sex is a risky sexual behavior that increases one's likelihood of contracting sexually transmitted infections (e.g., Levinson, Jaccard, & Beamer, 1995). By studying how people approach and view FWB partnerships, we may gain better insight into the potential health consequences of this specific type of relationship. For example, the extant research on FWB relationships has not examined whether the partners in such involvements are monogamous. Knowing whether individuals have multiple FWB relationships simultaneously can help us to begin to classify the risk level of such involvements. Second, from a theoretical standpoint, there is an extensive literature suggesting that men and women view casual sex differently for a variety of reasons (e.g., Oliver & Hyde, 1993; Schmitt et al., 2003). Using this research as an organizing framework could help us to understand whether and why men and women negotiate FWB relationships differently and what implications this might have for the long-term outcomes of such relationships.
