You might have asked yourself why the meanest friends are the ones who care about you the most. According to science, these friends are honest and helpful, and you should always stick to them.

A study published in the Association for Psychological Science, real friends can sometimes have negative feelings for their beloved friends and make them feel uncomfortable since they think that these negative feelings can be beneficial for them in the long term.

According to the researcher Belen Lopez-Pere, people tend to show cruelty in order to express their kindness.

Namely, 140 participants took part in the study, and all of them were encouraged to imagine being in somebody`s shoes and to predict the way in which they will react. In addition, they were asked to play a computer game with an anonymous partner, which actually did not exist.

All of them received a not saying that their partner was heartbroken and they should imagine how their partner felt. Before the participants were divided into two teams, some of them were asked to sympathize with their partner, while the others were asked to detain from emotions.

The task of the first team was to play a game, where they should kill as many enemies as they could, whereas the task of the second team was to escape from a room filled with zombies.

The results of the study showed that the team, who sympathized with their partner, expressed strong emotions and generated more anger into their co-partner, whereas the second team, which was asked to be emotionally detached, expressed more fear in their partner.

Therefore, the stronger emotions that the first team generated showed that the team sympathized with their co-partner and indicated a higher rate of achievement when they won the game.

Source: ScienceDaily