Report: Besties Who Slay Together Stay Together

A new psychological study from Penn’s emerging Lana Del Rey Center for Psychosomatic Excellence has confirmed what many researchers have suspected for years – besties who slay together stay together. 

The study closely studied a number of tight-knit, intimate friendships (scientific term “besties”) over a period of five years. These besties were then separated into two distinct groups – those who slayed and those who frayed. The besties who slayed consistently went out together wearing the hottest fashions and maintaining a cool, chic vibe. The besties who frayed did just that – their clothes were falling apart at the seams, nobody liked their vibes, and – as the study found – the bonds of their friendship frayed just as fast as their ugly and weird clothes.

Statistically significant results found that a maximized joint slay between besties resulted in loving and long-lasting relationships. No joint slay? The results were much more ominous for these besties. 75% of besties in the “frayed” control group no longer considered themselves besties by the end of the study. 

The study is reverberating throughout the field of psychology – many professionals consider this a watershed moment for the discipline. The DSM-5 is expected to be updated with the promising results of the study and many mental health professionals expect to shift their treatment towards the importance of slaying with a bestie rather than silly little theories about imaginary brain chemicals.

Those involved with the study point to former Penn Psychology Artist-in-Residence Lana Del Rey as the linchpin of the breakthrough. During her tenure as the artist-in-residence, Del Rey founded the Center for Psychosomatic Excellence and changed the field of psychology as we know it. Del Rey asked a key question for the culture and – thanks to her – something shifted.