Also, sexual desire and romantic feelings are not the same thing, but young men have an especially hard time disentangling the two. As I get older I have a much easier time being friends with women than I did when I was in my teens to early twenties. I have a couple friends that are very attractive women, and while I'm attracted to them, I have no trouble decoupling my attraction from my friendship. This is something I would have found impossible a decade ago.
True. In some sense the reason why this study is supposed to surprise us is because culturally we aren't supposed to be sexually attracted to anyone but our chosen partner. It's pretty absurd to think that attraction is soley based upon the nature of the relationship. There's nothing wrong with recognizing that your friend is attractive.