You’ve probably gone through a situation where you felt like unfriending someone because he or she scolded you or was just seemingly mean to you for no reasonable cause.
Like the time when you had just broken up with your partner and you were crying in your bed the whole time. Instead of hugging you and showering you with comforting words, your friend called you out for being weak.
If you’ve been or are going through this situation, you might want know that a recent study carried out by the University of Plymouth revealed that mean friends may just be the best ones for you.
Researchers found out that people who insulted their friends aren’t necessarily making it in ill spirit. Some people insult their friends so that they can benefit from it in the future.
The research was a survey carried out among 140 respondents. It had found out that one of the everyday situations that have been identified where this is applicable is when someone induces fear of failure into their loved one who is procrastinating instead of studying for their exams.
“These findings shed light on social dynamics, helping us to understand, for instance, why we sometimes may try to make our loved ones feel bad if we perceive this emotion to be useful to achieve a goal,” psychological scientist and the study’s author Belén López-Pérez wrote.
Looking back at it, you might realise that sometimes all those mean comments that come out from your friend’s mouth make you want to strive hard enough to prove to them that they are wrong.
This just goes to prove that tough love is still love and sometimes you just need to gobble those mean comments up.
So the next time your friends straight up comment on your physical appearance like “you need to workout, you’re getting chubbier”, you may want to take it more positively and tell them, “Thanks, you too!” 
Hey, there’s enough tough love to go around right?
Also read: Study Shows People Who Swear are More Honest and Trustworthy
