Forging Close Friendships: Strategies for Strengthening Friendships People Consider Desirable, and the Role of Personality

Friendship constitutes an important aspect of human interaction. However, not all friendships are equally desirable, and the current study aimed to identify the strategies that people use to strengthen desirable friendships. More specifically, Study 1 employed open-ended questionnaires on a sample of 218 Greek-speaking participants and identified 54 acts that people use for this purpose. Study 2 utilized a close-ended questionnaire on a sample of 434 Greek-speaking participants and classified these acts into seven broader strategies that people employ to strengthen desirable friendships. The most commonly used strategy was “provide support,” followed by “more frequent interaction,” and “show trust.” Additionally, women indicated a higher willingness to use these strategies than men, while age effects were observed for several strategies. Furthermore, individuals who scored higher in agreeableness and openness indicated a greater willingness to use most of the identified strategies.