Should We Be Thankful If We Have a “Mean” Friend?

In life we need friends, and we all have a friend that we love, but sometimes, we cannot stand when they tell us the truth. The words they say can be hurtful because that friend tells us their honest opinion, and we may even start to think they are malicious.

Anyway, science says that our best friend is not trying to hurt us, even though it may appear as they do. Surprising, right? Actually, new studies say that the friend that we consider the meanest just cares about us and loves us honestly.

One research published in Psychological Science, explains that those who make other people feel negative emotions think that those emotions will be beneficial for that person in the long-term. (1)

In the research from Plymouth University, participated 140 adults whose behavior was observed by the scientists. They were given hypothetical situations such as making a friend fear failure at the exam, who chose procrastination instead of studying.

According to the researchers, when the participants were asked to consider someone else’s viewpoint the chance of them going for negative emotions and experiences for the other individual has increased if they believed that the experience would help them.

So, the outcomes of the study proved that people are sometimes mean for good purposes. According to the lead author of the study, López-Pérez, people are aware of which emotions are useful for reaching various goals in life.

Shortly, some people seem to mean because they have empathy and selflessness for you. It is not always because they loathe you and they want to make you feel bad.

Well, instead of avoiding or hating your “meanest” friends, you should respect them and thank them for their honesty and loyalty.