Two-thirds of romantic couples start out as friends, study finds 

If you've been having trouble finding love on dating apps, you might want to try dating one of your friends, a new study suggests.  

The study authors, based in British Columbia, Canada looked at data from just under 2,000 couples of different demographics. 

They found two thirds started out as just friends, suggesting that establishing a platonic connection with someone first is conducive to a solid romantic relationship later.

The study suggests that the cliché of falling in love at first site – a frequent trope in the Hollywood movies of the silver screen – is slightly outdated in the 21st century. 

In fact, getting to know someone as friends first could be more effective than starting a relationship off in a sexual context, such as by using dating apps like Tinder and Bumble or going on blind dates. 

'There are a lot of people who would feel very confident saying that we know why and how people choose partners and become a couple and fall in love, but our research suggests that is not the case,' said study author Danu Anthony Stinson, a psychology professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. 

'We might have a good understanding of how strangers become attracted to each other and start dating, but that's simply not how most relationships begin.' 

For the study, Professor Stinson and colleagues analysed data from nearly 1,900 university students and crowdsourced adults.

In all, 68 per cent reported that their current or most recent romantic relationship began as a friendship.            

There was little variation across gender, level of education or ethnic groups, the researchers found.

But the rate of friends-first relationships was particularly high among 20-somethings and within LGBTQ+ communities. 

Among people under age 29, 84 per cent reported friends-first relationships, and among LGBTQ+ people, 85 per cent reported friends-first relationships. 

'These were smaller samples compared to

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