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In ethology and social science, male bonding or male friendship is the formation of close personal relationships, and patterns of friendship or cooperation between males. Male bonding is a form of homosociality, or social connection between individuals of the same gender. Male bonding can occur through various contexts and activities that build emotional closeness, trust, and . Male bonding is an important feature of men’s social functioning and can provide benefits including emotional support and intimacy, shared identity, and personal fulfillment contributing to men’s mental health and wellbeing.
Though male bonding and male friendships have been researched in contexts of anthropology, psychology, and sociology, overall male bonding remains understudied.
Shared Activities: Men often bond through participation in common activities such as sports, or hobbies. These activities provide an environment for cooperation, competition, and shared experiences, all of which can help strengthen social ties.
Emotional Support: Though men’s friendships are often stereotyped as surface level and consisting of less intimacy, more recent studies have found that men today both value and engage in intimacy in their friendships more than men in previous generations.
Rituals and Traditions: Many male groups engage in social rituals that help cement their relationships. These can range from informal traditions like watching sports together to more formal rites of passage such as fraternity initiations. Such traditions have also been criticized as promoting hegemonic masculinity.
There is research evidence from studies of children in school settings that preschool aged children are more likely to select same-sex playmates, rather than playmates of the other sex, when able to self-select playmates. There is also evidence that very young boys and girls differ in emotional expressiveness in dyadic friendships. Young boys often begin to seek out and enjoy time with other boys around this age, especially as they begin to recognize gender as a part of their identity.
Friendship is important for adolescent mental health and in early adolescence male friendships tend to become more intimate with higher value placed on self-disclosure, reciprocity, loyalty, and commitment. Friendship networks at this age tend to include both same and other gender peers as interests in romantic relationships begins to emerge, though gender segregation remains prominent across dyadic friendships.
In adolescence, cultural pressure for boys to conform to masculine ideals tends to increase which has led many to theorize that boys have fewer intimate friendships in adolescence and adulthood. Some researchers have found that in early adolescence boys often have very loving and intimate relationships with same-gender best friends, but that this intimacy wanes over time with men becoming more disconnected from their friendships in later adolescence, despite stated desires for intimacy. In some studies, men in college report less instances of sharing personal information with male friends including thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and self-disclosures compared to what they shared with female friends. However, more recent literature suggests that college age men tend to be less limited by traditional views of masculinity and homosocial bonding than previous generations and are more intimate and emotionally expressive in their same gender friendships.
During adolescence, boys often bond through risk-taking behaviors such as experimenting with substances, engaging in rebellious acts, or pushing physical limits. This creates a shared sense of adventure and camaraderie but can also have negative consequences if the behaviors are dangerous.
In adulthood, more emphasis begins to be placed on social roles and responsibilities such as increased focus on career, family, and personal development which can impact the amount of time men spend bonding with friends. However, strong male friendships remain vital, as they offer support in navigating the complexities of adulthood and help men maintain a sense of identity. Men’s friendship networks during this time often include work and professional contacts.
More recent research has shown that younger men are more likely to include gay peers in friendship groups. A new theory of masculinity, called "Inclusive masculinity theory", has emerged to capture a societal decline in homophobia in western cultures and a theorized more inclusive version of masculinity.
For transgender men, the experience of male bonding is shaped by their intersectional identities as both transgender individuals and men. As they navigate gender transition and male socialization, they may face challenges in forming male bonds. Transgender men may encounter exclusion from men in male-dominated spaces such as locker rooms or sports teams.
Though initially thought of as media trope, the bromance has become a more positive and inclusive representation of male relationships that allows men to express care for each other, both verbally and physically, in ways that defy traditional masculine norms, such as hugging, openly expressing affection, or discussing emotions.
These conversations have gained more scrutiny and attention in both popular culture and the media in recent years following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when a recording of Donald Trump casually bragging about sexually assaulting women to a television personality was leaked to the public. Following the tape being leaked, Trump attempted to dismiss public concern by stating the remarks were “locker room talk.” The incident sparked widespread discussions about the impact of such talk on societal attitudes toward women and the role it plays in reinforcing a culture of toxic masculinity.
Surveys have shown that men are experiencing a decline in the number of meaningful friendships they maintain, with the number of men reporting having at least 6 close friends halving in 2021 compared to 1990. Many men have reported feeling lonely or disconnected from others. This phenomenon is often attributed to cultural norms that encourage men to hide vulnerability and is thought to have been accelerated by societal shifts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic such as social isolating during the pandemic and resulting increases in remote work arrangements.
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