Study Says Staying Friends With An Ex Means One Of You Is A Psychopath — But Is It You Or Her?

During every break-up, one of the people involved will always say that the couple will or should still be friends. It’s usually the person doing the breaking. It’s also, usually, a line of bullshit.

On rare occasions, a couple does stay on amicable terms post coitus regulare and continues a relationship of sorts. They end up being besties. Those people are psychopaths. Feel free to say it to their face now because research says so as well.

Psychologists determined that the combination of personality traits — dubbed The Dark Traid — are found in people who “use others to their own advantage.” The Dark Triad traits are self-admiration, insensitivity, and manipulation. All of those nasty personality ticks are usually found in people who continue to hang out with exes long after the relationships ends.

Researchers at Oakland University studied the post-relationship friendships of 861 people and found that those with darker personality traits were more likely to keep exes around as friends. What’s more, they purposefully kept them around to exchange “desirable resources” like hookups and other sexual relationships. They also thought staying friends was more practical (for them) than cutting ties.

So the person didn’t think you were good enough to date but thinks you might prove handy somewhere down the road. They’re probably the psycho. Unless you did he breaking up. Then you’re the psycho. Actually, let’s make this really easy — anyone who remains very close with an ex for an reason, that person absolutely has a screw loose.

[via Esquire]