Requirements for love and friendship in Australia and Brazil

To compare love and friendship, undergraduates in Australia and Brazil rated the importance of 35 requirements being met in order to “fall in love” with someone of the opposite sex and to become “good friends” with someone of the same sex. Requirements considered important for love are also considered important for friendship but usually as more important in love than in friendship. Emotional involvement and dependency most distinguish love from friendship whereas respect and reciprocal communication are central to both. While these results generally hold in both countries and for both sexes, Brazilians appear to expect somewhat more from friendship than do Australians. So do females compared with males (especially in terms of emotional involvement).