Women tend to make better friends than men: Study

If you thought that female bonding is ephemeral, often suffering from bouts of jealousy, backstabbing and nasty catfights, think again, for a new research has revealed that women tend to form deep and lasting friendships while men are more likely to make fickle friends over a pint or game of squash.

The research suggests that people are more likely to socialise with their own gender. Members of the fairer sex make "deeper and more moral" friends and then stick with them through thick and thin.

By contrast, sociologists from the University of Manchester found that men tend to be more calculating about who they befriend, and are likely to base these relationships on social drinking.

The four-year study tracked the lives of 11,000 men and women between 1992 and 2002. Each of those taking part in the British Household Panel Surveys regularly filled in questionnaires about the state of their friendships. Gindo Tampubolon, from the University's School of Social Sciences, said his team had wanted to learn whether the nature of friendship had changed in recent years as technology had advanced.

One of his conclusions is that, in general, it has not. Indeed in some situations mobile phones and computers had actually enhanced friendships.

Here are the 10 Commandments of Friendship