友達以上，戀人未滿？那么也許你可以加把油，因為研究顯示，多達三分之二的夫婦或情侶是從朋友開始做起的。相比浪漫的一見鐘情，還是日久生情更為普遍。

When Harry first met Sally, he asserted men and women could not be friends because the “sex part always gets in the way”.

當哈利第一次遇見莎莉時，他曾宣稱男人和女人不能做朋友，因為“總躲不過性這一關”。

注：此處指的是1989年經典愛情電影《當哈利遇到莎莉》

But new research suggests roughly two-thirds of couples start out as friends and maintain a platonic relationship for long periods before sparking a romance.

但是新研究顯示，約三分之二的夫婦或情侶是從朋友開始做起的，在碰撞出愛情火花之前維持了很長一段時間的柏拉圖式的關系。

Danu Anthony Stinson, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada, and her co-authors investigated the experience of nearly 1,900 university students and crowdsourced adults (including 677 who were married or in a common law partnership), all of whom were asked whether they were friends with their current romantic partner before they became romantically involved.

加拿大維多利亞大學心理學系副教授達努·安東尼·斯廷森和該研究報告的合著者們調查了近1900名大學生和參與眾包的成年人（包括677名已婚者或同居者）的經歷，并向所有受訪者提出了一個問題：他們和現任伴侶在一起之前兩人是不是朋友。

Most participants (68%) reported that their current or most recent romantic relationship began as a friendship. The rate of friends-first initiation was even higher among 20-somethings, with 85% of such couples saying their romance began as a friendship.

多數參與者（68%）報告稱，他們和現任或上一任伴侶就是從朋友開始做起的。始于友情的愛情在二十幾歲的人當中所占的比例更高，其中有85%的夫婦或情侶表示他們在成為戀人之前是朋友。

How does a platonic relationship turn romantic and what really is the distinction between friends and lovers is a question that is still being unpicked, Stinson said.

斯廷森表示，柏拉圖式的關系如何轉變為愛情，以及朋友和戀人之間的分界線究竟在哪里，仍然是未解的難題。

Some participants described holding hands, family introductions, going on trips together, cuddling by the fire, and even having sex, as friendship. Others categorised those exact behaviours as romantic.

有些參與者將牽手、把對方引見給家人、一起去旅游、依偎在爐火旁、甚至發生性關系都定義為朋友之間做的事，而其他人則認為這些都是戀人才做的事。

In the study, roughly 300 university students were also asked how long their “friends phase” lasted and whether they preferred to be friends before taking things in a romantic direction. On average, the “friends first” initiators were friends for nearly 22 months before the relationship turned romantic and almost half of the total sample thought that friends-first initiation was the best way to start a new romantic relationship, versus the other options presented such as meeting at a party or online, the researchers wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

在這項發表在期刊《社會心理學與人格科學》上的研究中，近300名大學生被問及他們的“友情期”持續了多長時間，以及他們是否愿意在談戀愛之前先做朋友。研究人員寫道，從朋友開始做起的夫婦或情侶之間的友情平均持續了將近22個月才轉變為愛情。相比在派對上或網上認識等其他選擇，近半數的受訪者認為先做朋友是開始一段新戀情的最佳方式。

英文來源：衛報

翻譯&編輯：丹妮