Over 70% of Gen Z men say vulnerability is essential or very important in friendship.

Shared activities are a common starting point for close friendships among Gen Z men.

Humor and vulnerability can coexist as meaningful ways men show up for one another.

Recent research has examined factors that impact men’s social connection. Findings suggest that while men often connect through shared activities like work and sports, traditional masculinity norms emphasizing self-reliance and invulnerability can make it more difficult to sustain these connections (Nordin et al., 2024).

Against this backdrop, Hinge conducted a cross-sectional survey of 2,587 U.S. Gen Z adults to explore how men build, value, and struggle with close friendships.

I connected with Moe Ari Brown (he/they), Love and Connection Expert at Hinge, to discuss what people misunderstand about vulnerability in male friendships and how these findings can inform building meaningful friendships as an adult.

Vulnerability in Male Relationships

Data from Hinge’s study demonstrate that vulnerability may actually be a friendship standard for Gen Z men. While over 57% of Gen Z men shared that their fear of being vulnerable has gotten in the way of getting closer to people, 71% report that a willingness to be vulnerable is essential or very important in friendship.

In fact, men are actively looking for more ways to connect. “Our culture often misinterprets a lack of male friendship as a lack of desire for male friendship. It's not necessarily that men struggle to be vulnerable once they're in a friendship; the challenge lies in the process of building that friendship in the first place,” states Moe.

Research similarly suggests that men vary in how they seek and use social support. McKenzie and colleagues (2018) found diverse patterns of connection, challenging assumptions that men are uniformly less interested in building emotionally supportive relationships.

This highlights that male loneliness may be less about how men show up in their relationships and more about whether they have friendships to show up in at all.

The most commonly cited barriers to men developing close relationships included:

Social anxiety (66%);

Not knowing if the feeling is mutual (66%);

Not knowing where to find potential friends (64%); and

Difficulty fitting it into their schedules (62%).

According to Moe, “Vulnerability isn't always a big, emotional heart-to-heart. Sometimes it's allowing yourself to have a friend, letting........

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