Friends to Frenemies
The linked source details the story of Brittany, a Psychology Today viewer, who created an online discussion with one of the website’s “Friendship Doctors” to discuss her concern and stress from her friendship triangle. She met and friend and bonded with her over their love for photography. A year after meeting her first friend, she met a second and also bonded with her over their interest in photography. Brittany decided to and took the initiative to introduce her two friends to one another so that all three of the ladies could form one, coherent, photography-loving friend group. Typically, when a person introduce two of their friends to one another, the result is usually either all three involved becoming and staying friends or the two friends who were introduced to each other becoming enemies. Brittany’s situation started as hoped for and expected: her friends became friends with another. Though, strangely and unexpectedly, her friendship triangle took a turn, and her two friends each developed a negative relationship with Brittany and ultimately became her enemies.
The discussion relates to the concepts of Triadic Closure Principle and Structural Balance Theory. Brittany originally formed a positive edge with her first friend whom she met in class. After a year, she formed another positive edge with a second friend whom she met after discussing their mutual interest in photography. Brittany desired to unite her friends, or form a friendship triangle that satisfies the Triadic Closure Principle; Brittany’s friend group contained three nodes: Brittany (A), friend one (B), and friend two (C). For her group to form a complete triangle, B and C would have an edge of some form, whether weak or strong (Triadic Closure Principle). After Brittany decided to take an initiative to form an edge between B and C, her friendships and the Structural Balanced Theory were violated. Usually, when an edge if formed between B and C, it is either positive (results in A, B, and C all being friends) or negative (A and B being friends and A and C being friends). Interestingly in Brittany’s situation, B and C formed a positive edge, though the edges between A & B and A & C transitioned from positive to negative. This case has introduced an unexpected, though probable, scenario of the shift of positive/negative connections that can lead to an unfavorable, unbalanced friendship network triangle, along with a violation of the Structural Balance Theory.