Who do teens crush on? A new study reveals the social math of adolescent attraction

An analysis of the Peers and Emergence of Adolescent Romance (PEAR) study data found that adolescents are more likely to be fancied if they have more friendship connections or are personally considered popular by a peer. Adolescents personally perceived as physically aggressive by specific peers were also more likely to be fancied by them. The paper was published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Adolescent romantic life begins long before the formation of an established relationship, through fantasies, brief encounters, and one-sided attractions known as crushes. Crushes are common during early adolescence and can play an important role in the development of romantic identity, self-concept, and sensitivity to peer evaluation.

Because they tend to be intense but unreciprocated, they allow young people to explore attraction without necessarily entering a formal relationship. These attractions usually develop within peer groups, where popularity, physical attractiveness, friendship ties, and social visibility shape who becomes noticed and desired.

Sexual selection theory suggests that adolescents differ in “mate value,” or the set of qualities that make someone more likely to attract romantic interest. Attraction may depend both on a person’s private, one-on-one evaluation of a peer and on the peer’s broader reputation within the group. This means that crushes are influenced not only by individual preferences but also by social status and collective judgments about who is attractive or desirable.

Study author Melissa González-Loyola and her colleagues investigated the factors associated with adolescent crush nominations, addressing the question of “who fancies whom?” More specifically, they investigated which adolescents are more likely to be the crushes of their peers, and who tends to nominate others as crushes. They also wanted to know how similarities or differences between adolescents relate to their patterns of romantic interest.

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These authors analyzed data from the Peers and the Emergence of Adolescent Romance (PEAR) study, a survey of adolescents’ romantic and sexual relationships. This survey was conducted with students from a high school operating at four locations in a geographically isolated, semi-rural area in the northern Netherlands. This area is more ethnically and culturally homogenous than other parts of the Netherlands, with less than 5% of the population being non-Dutch.

Participants were 1,895 students of a high school (out of a total of 2,159 students at that high school). Just under 51% of them were girls. Their average age was 14.8 years.

Although the high school operated at four locations, the study treated them all as a single school network, as the study authors noted that students socialize and spend time together outside of class in their neighborhoods, often across locations. The survey presented the participating students with a list of all students from the school and asked them to nominate those they had a crush on (“Who do you fancy/have a crush on/would like to date…?”), popular peers, physically aggressive peers, relationally aggressive peers, physically attractive peers, and their best friends. Students also reported their age and gender, allowing authors to calculate similarities between students.

Results showed that 35% of students reported having at least one crush. Of those who nominated a crush, 55% nominated just one person, and 22% nominated two students. Nearly 39% of students were nominated as someone’s crush. Around 48% of those nominated as crushes were boys. Roughly 62% of students who were nominated as someone’s crush received one nomination (most often not reciprocated by the student they designated as their own crush!) and 22% received two nominations.

Study authors classified participants into isolates (those who neither nominated nor were nominated; 42%), those who were only nominated (22.7%), those who only nominated others (19.2%), and those who both nominated and were nominated (16.1%). Of the participants who reported crushes, 88% nominated only cross-gender crushes. Just under 7% reported only same-gender crushes, and 5% reported both cross- and same-gender crushes.

Only 12% of participants who nominated a crush experienced reciprocity (they were nominated by the same student they had a crush on). Of the 39 students who reported being in a romantic relationship, 39% reported having a crush on someone other than their partner.

Looking into the characteristics of students who were nominated as crushes, results indicated that students who had more friendship connections were more likely to be fancied. Furthermore, at the individual level, adolescents were more likely to fancy a specific peer if they *personally* perceived that peer as popular or physically aggressive. However, broader, group-wide reputations for popularity or physical attractiveness did not make someone more likely to receive crush nominations.

Conversely, when looking at who *sent* crush nominations, adolescents who had more friends or who had a group-wide reputation for being relationally aggressive—meaning they spread gossip, rumors, or socially excluded others—tended to nominate more crushes (especially among boys). On the other hand, students who were considered popular by the broader peer group tended to be more selective, giving fewer crush nominations.

“Overall, these findings demonstrate how social visibility, status, and individual strategies of romantic pursuit are associated with early adolescent crush patterns, consistent with sexual selection processes,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about the intricacies of adolescent interpersonal and romantic relationships. However, the study authors note that the cross-sectional design of the research (collecting data at only a single point in time) limits the ability to determine cause and effect. Additionally, the self-report nature of the survey may have introduced social desirability bias—the tendency for people to answer questions in a way that makes them look good—or limited self-awareness. Also, because the participants were Dutch adolescents in a relatively homogenous and semi-rural setting, the results may not generalize to more urban or culturally diverse contexts.

The paper, “Who Fancies Whom? Investigating Adolescent Romantic Interests,” was authored by Melissa González-Loyola, Diego Francisco Palacios Farias, and René Veenstra.