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Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for
post-relationship friendship
Justin K. Mogilski ⁎, Lisa L.M. Welling
Department of Psychology, Oakland University, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Compared to motivations for cross-sex friendship, little research has examined motivations for friendship be-
Received 12 February 2016 tween ex-partners after romantic relationship dissolution (i.e., post-relationship friendship; PRF). In Study 1, par-
Received in revised form 28 March 2016 ticipants (N = 348) act nominated reasons for why someone might remain friends with an ex-partner. In Study 2,
Accepted 1 April 2016
participants (N = 513) rated the importance of staying friends with an ex-partner for each reason given in Study
Available online xxxx
1 and completed the PID-5-BF and HEXACO to measure domains of clinically relevant and non-pathological per-
Keywords:
sonality. Principle component analysis identified seven categories of reasons for staying friends. Reasons that in-
Cross-sex friendship dicated that an ex-partner is reliable, trustworthy, and of sentimental value (i.e., reliability/sentimentality) were
Relationship dissolution given the highest importance ratings whereas reasons that indicated that continued friendship was practical
Dark personality (i.e., pragmatism) were given the lowest ratings. Men rated pragmatism and sexual access reasons as more impor-
Sex difference tant than women did. Furthermore, antagonism scores on the PID-5-BF, and the Honesty–Humility and extraver-
sion scores on the HEXACO predicted importance ratings for pragmatism and sexual access. Our findings are
consistent with previous research and suggest that PRF may provide opportunity for ex-partners to exchange de-
sirable resources (e.g., love, status, information, money, sex) after romantic relationship dissolution.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Staying friends with an ex: sex and dark personality traits predict partners (i.e., post-relationship friendship; PRF). PRFs can have positive
motivations for post-relationship friendship and negative consequences on stress, coping, and general health de-
pending on the types of coping strategies used by each partner
Friendship is a fundamental aspect of interpersonal relationships in (Chung et al., 2003; Perilloux & Buss, 2008), the extent to which each
humans (reviewed in Hruschka, Hackman, & Macfarlan, 2015) that partner engages in friendship maintenance behavior post-break-up
has likely solved a number of adaptive problems during social evolution (Dailey, McCracken, Jin, Rossetto, & Green, 2013), perceptions of control
through the formation of cooperative alliances (DeScioli & Kurzban, over the break-up (Gray & Silver, 1990), separation acceptance (Mason,
2009) and exchange of material or social resources (Barclay, 2013; Sbarra, Bryan, & Lee, 2012), and the extent to which friendship con-
Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). Same- and cross-sex friendships (CSFs) tinues to provide valuable resources (Busboom, Collins, Givertz, &
confer similar benefits (Baumgarte & Nelson, 2009; Lewis et al., 2011). Levin, 2002). Ex-partners are more likely to remain friends after a
However, CSFs also facilitate mating opportunities (Guerrero & break-up if they were friends prior to romantic involvement (Metts,
Mongeau, 2008; Hendrick & Hendrick, 2000). Indeed, although both Cupach, & Bejlovec, 1989), if the disengager used de-escalation tactics
men and women tend to keep their friendships and sexual relationships (see Banks, Altendorf, Greene, & Cody, 1987), if the relationship was
separate, sexual feelings and tensions still exist in many CSFs (Halatsis & characterized by romantic commitment (Tan et al., 2014), if an ex-
Christakis, 2009) and nearly half of college students have engaged in partner is still perceived as desirable (Banks et al., 1987), or if an individ-
sexual activity with otherwise platonic cross-sex friends (Afifi & ual reported satisfaction with the relationship (Bullock, Hackathorn,
Faulkner, 2000). Clark, & Mattingly, 2011). Likewise, neglect and avoidance, lack of sup-
The benefits and costs of CSFs prior to and during a romantic rela- port by friends and family, and a partner's involvement in a new roman-
tionship have been studied extensively (e.g. Bleske-Rechek & Buss, tic relationship are barriers to PRF quality (Busboom et al., 2002).
2001; Bleske-Rechek et al., 2012; Lewis et al., 2011; Reeder, 2000, Together, this evidence suggests that PRFs serve similar functions to
2003; Tan, Agnew, VanderDrift, & Harvey, 2014). Comparatively little that of platonic CSFs insofar as PRFs are maintained, or dissolved, de-
research has examined motivations for friendship between ex- pending on the perceived value of the friendship and the extent to
which ex-partners engage in mutual friendship maintenance.
⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester,
PRFs also resemble other platonic CSFs in that they may involve con-
MI 48309, United States. tinued romantic or sexual interest. Previous romantic involvement pre-
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.K. Mogilski). dicts sexual attraction in platonic CSFs (Kaplan & Keys, 1997), and ex-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
0191-8869/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Mogilski, J.K., & Welling, L.L.M., Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-
relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
2 J.K. Mogilski, L.L.M. Welling / Personality and Individual Differences xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

partners are rated low on friendship quality (but high on romantic de- 3. Study 2
sirability) compared to friends with no romantic/sexual history
(Schneider & Kenny, 2000). Women are more likely to make in- 3.1. Method
person contact with an ex-partner who has desirable qualities
(DeLecce & Weisfeld, 2015) and dissolved relationships are more likely 3.1.1. Participants
to renew when partners report lingering feelings or have not dated Participants (N = 513; 358 female; age: M = 21.03, SD = 4.62;
others since the breakup (Dailey, Jin, Pfiester, & Beck, 2011). Interest- range = 18–48) were recruited as per Study 1. University students
ingly, individuals who receive more resources from an ex-partner who participated in Study 1 did not participate in Study 2. The majority
(e.g., love, status, services, information, goods, money) report higher of participants were White (78.6%, 6.8% Black, 6.2% Asian, 4.1% Hispanic/
PRF quality, particularly if they are satisfied with these resources Latino, 4.1% other), exclusively heterosexual (96.3%, 3.1% bisexual, 0.6%
(Busboom et al., 2002). This suggests that PRF formation may permit re- exclusively homosexual), and currently in a romantic relationship
lationship renewal or future exchange of valuable resources. (62.4%). All reported having experienced at least one break-up.
To further understand motivations for PRF, the current study used an
act nomination procedure to identify reasons for staying friends after a 3.1.2. Materials and procedure
break-up (Study 1). We then used an act frequency procedure to cate- Participants provided demographic information and were given the
gorize items generated from the act nomination (Study 2). We also ex- following prompt:
amined the extent to which clinically relevant (e.g., dark) and non-
pathological personality features and sex predict rated importance of In this study, we are interested in how romantic partners interact after a
these reasons. Dark personality features are a collection of antagonistic break-up (i.e., after their romantic relationship has ended). Sometimes,
behaviors and interpersonal styles that are associated with disagree- two ex-partners will continue to remain friends after their romantic re-
ableness (e.g., Egan & McCorkindale, 2007), manipulativeness and cal- lationship has ended. For example, they might still openly communicate
lousness (Jones & Figueredo, 2013), and exploitativeness (Jonason, Li, with one another from time to time, seek each other out for advice, want
Webster, & Schmitt, 2009). Individuals who score higher on measures to spend time with one another, etc.
of dark personality tend to choose friends for strategic purposes
(Jonason & Schmitt, 2012), rate friendship as lower in importance Next, participants rated the importance of each of the 153 act nom-
(Lyons & Aitken, 2010), and prefer short-term versus long-term roman- inations (anchors: 1 = unimportant, 5 = extremely important). Finally,
tic relationships (Jonason, Valentine, Li, & Harbeson, 2011; Koladich & participants completed the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form
Atkinson, 2016). Thus, it is likely that these traits will be associated (PID-5-BF; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and the HEXACO-
with valuing friendships for utilitarian or instrumental reasons, such 60 (Ashton & Lee, 2009). The PID-5-BF measures several pathological
as to maintain sexual access. personality features (Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol,
2012) and interpersonal styles (e.g., manipulativeness, hostility) that
are associated with other measures of dark personality (Southard,
2. Study 1 Noser, Pollock, Mercer, & Zeigler-Hill, 2015), such as the Dark Tetrad
(Buckels, Jones, & Paulhus, 2013) and spitefulness (Marcus, Zeigler-
2.1. Method Hill, Mercer, & Norris, 2014). It measures five dimensions of pathological
personality: negative affect (i.e., the tendency to experience negative
2.1.1. Participants and procedure emotions), detachment (i.e., introversion, social isolation, and anhedo-
Participants (N = 348; 243 female; age: M = 21.43, SD = 11.88; nia), antagonism, (i.e., aggression accompanied by assertions of domi-
range = 18–51) were recruited from an Eastern United States univer- nance and grandiosity), disinhibition (i.e., impulsivity and sensation
sity and from various social media websites (e.g., Reddit, Twitter). seeking), and psychoticism (i.e., disconnection from reality and illogical
Most participants were exclusively heterosexual (96%, 3.4% bisexual, thought patterns). Similarly, the HEXACO measures dimensions of per-
0.6% exclusively homosexual) and White (77.6%, 9.2% Black, 4.6% sonality that resembles the Big-5 and includes a sixth honesty–humility
Asian, 2.9% Hispanic/Latino, and 5.7% other), and roughly half were cur- factor which shares common variance with measures of the Dark Triad
rently in a romantic relationship (55.7%). (Lee et al., 2013), disordered personality traits (Crego, Gore, Rojas, &
Following previous act nomination procedures (e.g., Buss & Craik, Widiger, in press), and unethical decision-making (De Vries & van
1983), participants responded to the following prompt: Gelder, 2015).

In this study, we are interested in the reasons people continue to be

friends with a romantic partner after they break-up. Please think of a 3.2. Results
time when you or someone else decided to stay friends with a romantic
partner after a break-up. Below, please write down at least five reasons Principle component analyses (PCAs, followed by promax rotation)
someone might stay friends with an ex. We are interested in specific rea- were performed on participants' evaluations of the act nominations. A
sons. One should be able to answer the following questions about each Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (Cerny & Kaiser, 1977) indicated that our sam-
of your reasons: Have you ever stayed friends with someone after a ple size was adequate for performing PCA (KMO = .957). An explor-
break-up for this reason? How often has this been the reason for staying atory PCA extracted eleven components with an eigenvalue N1.0
friends with an ex? (Kaiser–Guttman criterion, see Jackson, 1993). Because only seven of
these components predicted unique variance, we re-ran the PCA and
Materials were presented using the online survey software program fixed the number of extracted factors to seven (see Table 1 for compo-
Qualtrics. nent loadings). Following O'Connor (2000), an eigenvalue Monte
Carlo simulation (i.e., parallel analysis) was performed, which con-
firmed that extraction of seven factors was optimal.
2.2. Results Items with component loadings of at least 0.40 were included. Cross-
loaded items were assigned to the component with the highest loading
Participants provided 2302 act nominations. Redundant responses value, or excluded if the difference was b0.20. The seven components
(e.g., still in love; I still loved him) were collapsed into 186 unique act included (in order of variance explained): reliability/sentimentality
nominations. Vague responses (e.g., power; benefits) were also elimi- (α = .97, R2 = 28.80; e.g., “They made me a better person”), pragmatism
nated. A final list of 153 acts was compiled for use in Study 2. (α = .91, R2 = 7.01; e.g., “They had a lot of money”), continued romantic

Please cite this article as: Mogilski, J.K., & Welling, L.L.M., Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-
relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
 J.K. Mogilski, L.L.M. Welling / Personality and Individual Differences xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 3

Table 1 Table 1 (continued)

Reasons for staying friends and component loadings (PCA, promax rotation).
Loading
Loading
I wanted to be a part of my ex's life .504
Reliability/sentimentality I wanted to make their new romantic partner jealous .486
They were a great listener .850 I wanted to know who they might date next .486
They were supportive of my goals .802 So my ex's new partners/romantic interests know that I′m still around .482
We had similar personalities .793 I invested a lot of time and feeling into them .466
I valued their advice .789 I still found them attractive .464
They made me a better person .781 I was not over them, but I was afraid to commit .449
They were emotionally supportive .772 I felt lonely .447
I enjoyed their company .769 I still enjoyed flirting with them .440
I felt I could trust them .760
I had very open communication with them .755 Children and shared resources
They were outgoing .752 We had children together .841
I respected them .748 Me or my ex was pregnant .830
We had common interests/hobbies .738 We had shared loans/debts .798
They motivated me to improve myself .728 We had shared property .775
They understood me better than other people .716 I wanted to provide a good family environment for children despite the .771
I felt comfortable around them .715 break-up
I found them funny .714 They were my boss .756
I valued their friendship .701 We worked together professionally .709
I considered them to be an important part of my life .653 We were living together .658
They were my best friend during the relationship .651 We had a pet together .567
We shared a lot of good memories .641 They supported me in some way (shared utilities, phone bills, etc.) .537
They were adventurous .631 I wanted to prevent my ex from harming him/herself .496
If I needed help, they would help me .620 I was supporting them financially .482
They were dependable .615 Diminished romantic attraction
We had similar beliefs and values .610 I realized I was no longer in love with them .823
Being friends made me happy .604 I was no longer romantically attracted to them .779
I didn't want to lose a friend .582 I lost sexual interest in them .705
It felt normal to have them around .581 I was totally over my ex .629
I told them I would always be there for them .571 The romantic relationship meant little to me .611
They did not betray my trust .563 We were sexually incompatible .550
They were supportive of my religious beliefs .507 There were few negative feelings after the break-up .498
I had a strong relationship with their family members .506 We did not date very long .491
We had many shared life events .502 There were no left-over romantic feelings .480
We were already friends before the relationship .498 We both cheated on each other .466
We were best friends before the relationship .482 My ex wasn't that attractive .463
They had a strong relationship with my family members .470 There were no hurt feelings .430
It was habit to talk to each other .468 The relationship was just a fling .424
I believed it was better to be kind to others than to hate them .454
We never argued in the relationship .428 Social relationship maintenance
I felt we were better off as friends .404 To maintain good relations with their friends .725
We shared a group of friends .687
Pragmatism To prevent awkwardness in our friend group .668
They had a lot of money .719 I wanted to stay friends with their friends .605
I wanted money from them .706 I wanted to show maturity .480
They would buy me nice gifts or food .690 To maintain a reputation of being mature and civil .462
I wanted to keep track of them in case they began to make more money .670 We attended school together .462
My ex knew how to fix or repair broken things (e.g., cars, and .639 Staying friends made life less dramatic .423
electronics) I wanted to show that I was stronger/more mature than my ex .418
They were able to provide me transportation to places .624 We saw each other frequently .401
My ex was a good cook .611
To have a standoff and determine who was most “over” the other person .532 Sexual access
They had attractive friends .532 To keep having sex with them (i.e., “friends with benefits”) .764
They were a useful social connection .528 They were a possible hook-up buddy .688
I hoped to hook up with one or more of their friends .517 We still had sex from time to time .644
I wanted to monitor my ex's future career success .515 The sex was good .605
They had social connections that were beneficial to me .457
I wanted to sabotage their chances at a new relationship .450
To prevent that person from speaking badly of me .446 attraction (α = .95, R2 = 5.13; e.g., “I still had feelings for them”), chil-
They were a fallback plan .443
dren and shared resources (α = .92, R2 = 2.89; e.g., “Me or my ex was
My (their) friend didn't want us together romantically .426
pregnant”), diminished romantic attraction (α = .88, R2 = 2.04; e.g., “I
Continued romantic attraction lost sexual interest”), social relationship maintenance (α = .85, R2 =
I still had feelings for them .789
1.64; e.g., “To prevent awkwardness in our friend group”), and sexual ac-
I couldn't stand the thought of another guy/girl being with them .789
I still wanted to date them .764 cess (α = .87; R2 = 1.59; e.g., “To keep having sex with them”). Mean
I was still in love with them .764 ratings were computed for each component (see Table 2 for intercorre-
I thought we might get back together later .684 lations). To control for inflated Type I error due to multiple comparisons,
I still felt jealous after the relationship .681 our alpha criterion was set to p b .01 for all analyses.
I didn't want them to forget me .669
As an excuse to keep seeing that other person .634
I wanted to prevent them from getting together with a new romantic .621 3.2.1. Relative importance of each component
interest A one-way repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a main effect of
I didn't want to end the relationship in the first place .619 component, F(6, 3006) = 266.32, p b .001. Pairwise comparisons re-
I missed them .605
vealed that reliability/sentimentality scores (M = 3.23, SD = 0.82)
I couldn't imagine my life without them .532
I wanted to make their new partner/romantic interest uncomfortable .518 were significantly greater than scores on each other component (all
p b .001), and that pragmatism scores (M = 1.70, SD = 0.61) were

Please cite this article as: Mogilski, J.K., & Welling, L.L.M., Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-
relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
4 J.K. Mogilski, L.L.M. Welling / Personality and Individual Differences xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Table 2 4. Discussion
Intercorrelations among extracted components.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4.1. Summary of findings and interpretation

1. Reliability/sentimentality .376 .650 .447 .569 .665 .292
2. Pragmatism .376 .569 .391 .576 .545 .511 In Study 2, participants rated the importance of staying friends with
3. Continued romantic att. .650 .569 .317 .492 .564 .515 an ex-partner for each act nominated reason given in Study 1, yielding
4. Children + shared resources .447 .391 .317 .503 .451 .243 seven categories of reasons. Reasons that indicated that an ex-partner
5. Diminished attraction .569 .576 .492 .503 .598 .315
is reliable, trustworthy, and of sentimental value (i.e., reliability/senti-
6. Social relationship maint. .665 .545 .564 .451 .598 .317
7. Sexual access .292 .511 .515 .243 .315 .317 mentality) were rated as more important than each other reason. This
is consistent with other research showing that individuals prioritize
these types of qualities (e.g., altruism, agreeableness, cooperativeness,
significantly lower than each other component (all p b .001). Scores for trust) in an opposite-sex friend (Baumgarte & Nelson, 2009;
children and shared resources (M = 2.82, SD = 1.02), social relationship Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001; Lewis et al., 2011). By contrast, reasons
maintenance (M = 2.77, SD = 0.81), and continued romantic attraction that indicated that continued friendship with an ex-partner is practical
(M = 2.54, SD = 0.83) were significantly greater than diminished ro- (i.e., pragmatism) were rated as less important than each other reason,
mantic attraction (M = 2.39, SD = 0.79) and sexual access (M = 2.19, with sexual access rated as second least important. As predicted, measures
SD = 1.07). Likewise, diminished romantic attraction scores were signif- of dark personality, in particular participants' scores on the antagonism
icantly greater than sexual access scores. Next, a between-subjects dimension of the PID-5-BF, were positively associated with pragmatism,
MANOVA was used to compare men's and women's scores on each of and scores on the honesty–humility factor of the HEXACO were nega-
the seven components (see Fig. 1). Pragmatism, F(1500) = 12.77, tively associated with sexual access. This is consistent with research show-
p b .001, d = 0.33, and sexual access scores, F(1500) = 32.57, p b .001, ing that individuals who score higher on similar measures (e.g., the Dark
d = 0.54, were higher for men than for women. However, after control- Triad) value short-term mating over long-term mating (Jonason et al.,
ling for scores on antagonism, honesty-humility, and extraversion (see 2009; Lee et al., 2013), value money and power (Lee et al., 2013), adopt
Section 3.2.2), men scored only marginally higher on pragmatism, F selfish behaviors in economic experiments (Hilbig & Zettler, 2009), and
(1500) = 2.90, p = .089. There were no other sex differences (all are more manipulative and callous (Jones & Figueredo, 2013). Likewise,
F b 2.21, all p N .138). pragmatic motivations and sexual access were predicted by extraversion,
which is also associated with facets of dark personality (Dufner,
Rauthmann, Czarna, & Denissen, 2013; Paulhus & Williams, 2002) and in-
3.2.2. Personality terest in short-term mating (Schmitt & Shackelford, 2008).
Seven multiple regressions were used to assess whether scores on Interestingly, those who scored higher on negative affect rated reli-
the five domains of the PID-5-BF and six domains of the HEXACO pre- ability/sentimentality and continued romantic attraction as more impor-
dicted any of the seven components (see Table 3). Antagonism and ex- tant. Individuals those who score higher on neuroticism (i.e., negative
traversion positively, and honesty-humility negatively, predicted affect's non-pathological counterpart) tend to experience more serious
pragmatism. Similarly, honesty-humility negatively, and extraversion psychological distress during a break-up (Tavares & Aassve, 2013). It
positively, predicted sexual access. Negative affect, extraversion, and may be that individuals who experience more anxiety from the negative
agreeableness also predicted reliability/sentimentality, and negative af- thoughts and emotions that accompany a break-up are more motivated
fect and extraversion positively, and honesty–humility negatively, pre- to maintain a PRF for these reasons. PRFs may mitigate break-up anxiety
dicted continued romantic attraction. See Table 4 in Supplemental by assuring that one will not lose the socioemotional support of an ex-
materials for alpha reliabilities and intercorrelations among normal partner (i.e., reliability/sentimentality) or miss out on romantic involve-
and pathological personality traits. ment (i.e., continued romantic attraction).

Fig. 1. Sex differences in mean importance ratings for each component.

Please cite this article as: Mogilski, J.K., & Welling, L.L.M., Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-
relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
 J.K. Mogilski, L.L.M. Welling / Personality and Individual Differences xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 5

Table 3
β regression weights and 99% confidence intervals for multiple regressions predicting importance ratings for each component from scores on the PID-5-SF and HEXACO.

Reliab./senti. Pragmatism Cont. rom. att. Shared resources Dim. rom. att. Soc. relat. maint. Sex. access

β CI β CI β CI β CI β CI β CI β CI

PID-5-SF
Negative affect .20⁎ [.08, .40] .02 [−.09, .12] .22⁎⁎ [.11, .42] .14 [.01, .41] .15 [.01, .33] .13 [−.01, .31] −.02 [−.23, .17]
Detachment .05 [−.11, .24] .04 [−.07, .16] .07 [−.07, .27] .06 [−.11, .33] .12 [.00, .34] .10 [−.02, .32] .13 [.04, .47]
Antagonism .00 [−.20, .20] .27⁎⁎ [.20, .46] .05 [−.11, .27] .03 [−.19, .31] .07 [−.08, .31] .09 [−.05, .34] .10 [−.04, .45]
Disinhibition .10 [−.04, .33] .08 [−.05, .21] .06 [−.10, .26] .13 [.00, .46] .04 [−.13, .23] .11 [−.03, .33] .07 [−.09, .37]
Psychoticism −.02 [−.16, .13] −.03 [−.12, .07] −.03 [−.17, .11] −.08 [−.30, .06] −.08 [−.23, .05] −.01 [−.15, .13] .01 [−.16, .20]
HEXACO
Honesty–Humility −.03 [−.02, .01] −.18⁎ [−.03, −.01] −.20⁎⁎ [−.05, −.02] −.05 [−.03, .01] −.08 [−.03, .00] −.10 [−.03, .00] −.15⁎ [−.05, −.01]
Emotionality .08 [−.01, .02] .00 [−.01, .01] .07 [−.01, .02] .09 [.00, .03] .01 [−.01, .01] .10 [.00, .03] −.12 [−.04, .00]
Extraversion .15⁎ [.01, .03] .10⁎ [.00, .02] .15⁎ [.01, .03] −.04 [−.02, .01] .13 [.00, .03] .14 [.00, .03] .23⁎⁎ [.02, .05]
Agreeableness .15⁎ [.01, .03] .06 [.00, .02] .01 [−.01, .01] .09 [.00, .03] .05 [−.01, .02] .12 [.00, .03] −.04 [−.02, .01]
Conscientiousness .02 [−.01, .02] −.08 [−.02, .00] −.05 [−.02, .01] .05 [−.01, .03] −.07 [−.03, .01] .04 [−.01, .02] −.04 [−.03, .01]
Openness .04 [−.01, .02] −.05 [−.01, .00] −.03 [−.01, .01] .04 [−.01, .02] .01 [−.01, .01] −.03 [−.01, .01] .02 [−.01, .02]
⁎ p b .01.
⁎⁎ p b .001.

Men rated sexual access higher on importance than women did , partner's perceived value (e.g., their physical attractiveness or resource
which is consistent with other research showing that men are more earning potential). Indeed, perceptions of an ex-partner's mate value
likely than women to form CSFs due to sexual attraction may influence the relative importance of each reason for staying friends,
(Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001; Lewis et al., 2011). Men were also more such that ex-partners with higher mate value in a particular domain
likely than women to rate pragmatism as important, though this finding (e.g., kindness vs. physical attractiveness) may be valuable for different
was only marginally significant after controlling for personality predic- reasons (e.g., reliability/sentimentality vs. sexual access). Future studies
tors of pragmatism. It is unclear why this is the case. Some research has should also include other measures of dark personality, such as the
found that male friendships are less reciprocal than relationships with MACH-IV (Christie & Geis, 1970), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory
women, particularly with regard to affective dimensions of friendship (Raskin & Hall, 1979), and the Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Hare,
(e.g., self-disclosure, trust, authenticity; Parker & de Vries, 1993). It is 1985).
possible that men are more likely to value friendships for their practical,
as opposed to socioemotional, benefits. However, this interpretation re- 4.3. Conclusion
quires further research. Previous research has also found that men tend
to have darker personalities than women (Paulhus & Williams, 2002), Although a break-up nominally marks the end of a romantic rela-
which may explain why controlling for antagonism and honesty–hu- tionship, the current research suggests that resource exchange between
mility weakened this sex difference. ex-partners can extend beyond relationship dissolution. Across two
Although past research has found that women judge physical pro- studies, we identified reasons for remaining friends after a break-up
tection and physical prowess as more important for initiating a CSF and outlined how the importance of these reasons varies with sex and
than men (Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001; Lewis et al., 2011), we did not personality. This research builds upon literature examining CSFs and
find sex differences related to physical protection. In fact, none of the suggests that PRFs are functionally similar insofar as they permit contin-
identified categories included reasons related to physical protection or ued exchange of desirable resources.
an ex-partner's physical prowess. Our two samples largely consisted Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx.
of university participants, which is a demographic for which concerns doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016.
about physical protection may not be especially salient. Women may
also be less likely to seek physical protection from an ex-partner com-
Author note
pared to other platonic male friends, particularly if protectiveness sig-
nals that their romantic relationship has not dissolved or if it
In support of the open science and transparency initiative, this
dissuades other potential suitors. Likewise, we did not find that
study's complete dataset may be downloaded from the first author's
women prioritize economic resources in a cross-sex friend more than
ResearchGate account.
men (Lewis et al., 2011). Both men and women rated children and
shared resources as equally important. However, it is possible that this
is due to differences between initiating a CSF and continuing to be References
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relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
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Please cite this article as: Mogilski, J.K., & Welling, L.L.M., Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-
relationship friendship, Personality and Individual Differences (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.016
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