| Baifern Pimchanok and Nine Naphat publicly dated after being friends for a long time. Image: Thairath. |
On February 13, actress Baifern Pimchanok shared photos of early Valentine’s Day with her boyfriend Nine Naphat. Baifern and Nine Naphat are currently one of the most popular artist couples in Thailand.
The two collaborate for the first time in a movie Friend Zone (Falling in love with the wrong best friend) in 2019. After that, they maintained a close friendship. Despite the audience’s pairing and dating rumors many times, the two still claim to be colleagues.
However, by the end of November 2022, Nine Naphat admitted to pursuing a female colleague. A few days later, Baifern shared that she “gave the green light” for Nine Naphat. The two first publicly dated on December 10, 2022.
Contrary to popular belief that love often begins at first sight between strangers, many studies show that two-thirds of couples in love were once close friends.
Romantic relationships built on friendship tend to be stronger, less broken, and easier to get married.
Dating with best friend
Danu Stinson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Victoria (Canada), said that while common, the journey to developing love from friendship is often overlooked by science.
Stinson has studied starting a relationship for 20 years and has found that many people are developing romantic interest in friends they have known for a while.
“Very few studies have actually looked at starting a friendship first, although in my observations that’s been the dominant form of relationship-building by far,” says Ms. Stinson.
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| Research shows that two-thirds of couples in love were once close friends. Image: Stringer. |
Stinson’s research is published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Scienceincluding many different surveys.
The first two surveys analyzed popular magazines and books and found that the existing literature mainly focuses on “romances arising between strangers”, and largely ignores ” love grows in groups of friends”.
The researchers then conducted multiple surveys of nearly 1,900 Canadians and Americans, between 2002 and 2020.
The analysis found that 66% of couples started off as friendships, many of them longtime friends.