Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Homophily, Close Friendship, And Life Satisfaction Among Gay, Lesbian, Heterosexual, And Bisexual Men And Women, Brian Joseph Gillespie, David Frederick, Lexi Harari, Christian Grov

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Friends play important roles throughout our lives by providing expressive, instrumental, and companionate support. We examined sexual orientation, gender, and age differences in the number of friends people can rely on for expressive, instrumental, and companionate support. Additionally, we examined the extent to which people relied on same-gender versus cross-gender friends for these types of support. Participants (N = 25,185) completed a survey via a popular news website. Sexual orientation differences in number of same-gender and cross-gender friends were generally small or non-existent, and satisfaction with friends was equally important to overall life satisfaction for all groups. However, the extent …