London – It turns out that Harry was right when he told Sally that men can’t be “just friends” with women.

Researchers have found that men’s friendships with the opposite sex are driven by sexual attraction, regardless of whether they are single.

Women, however, are more likely to consider their friendships with men as platonic – and only hoped for more if their own relationship was in trouble.

The scientists’ findings mirror the plot of 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, in which Harry, played by Billy Crystal, tells Meg Ryan’s Sally: “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.”

The researchers said the study had “potential negative consequences” for people in long-term relationships.

They said the impact of work, hobbies and university has seen friendships between men and women reach unprecedented levels.

But our mating instincts, which have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, may get in the way.

In a survey, 88 pairs of young male and female friends were asked to rate their attraction to each other in a confidential questionnaire.

Men – whether attached or single – were more likely to be attracted to their female friends and want to go on a date with them than the other way around.

They also assumed their female friends were more romantically interested in them than they actually were – and women tended to be unaware of this.

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