It’s an age-old debate: Can men and women truly, really, honestly just be friends?

Others — usually those with lots of friends from the opposite sex — insist that platonic friendships between straight men and women can exist.

Here is the thing: Studies have shown differences in the way both genders perceive and experience opposite-sex friendships. If you’re a dude, you’re more likely to think that your female friend might be attracted to you when she is not. Women, on the other hand, tend to assume their lack of attraction towards their male friend is mutual — hence the existence of the dreaded friend zone concept.

An anonymous AskMen reader voiced her concerns about the potential one-sidedness of male and female friendships on guyQ, AskMen’s Q&A platform.

Can men and women truly be just friends?

Without intentions of sex or anything else friends normally wouldn’t have?

I truly don’t believe this and this is why I don’t see why my boyfriend has to have female friends. Guys usually only befriend women they are attracted to. I feel like this is how they became friends in the first place. Attraction is what brought the two together.

I also feel like guys turn to their “friends” to fill the void after a break up.