Recent Pew Research Center study found that 54% of women say they turn to a friend for emotional support,

but only 38% of men say they do.

Men's lack of deep, close friendships has been in the spotlight lately.

To try to understand more about it, we asked men across the country to tell us what friendship means to them

and why some of them struggle

to maintain social connections with one another.

It's about feeling comfortable with somebody enough to be your authentic self.

It's somebody that is there for you and you are there for them.

I define friendship as being a mutual connection between two people.

It's very much a two-way street.

I think friendship is definitely harder for men.

I don't think men open up as much as they should.

For my experience, I think that men are sort of more the type to isolate themselves.

There were a lot of times where I was closer friends with women than I was with men.

Sometimes women, you can connect with them better on an emotional level as opposed to men.

I think a lot of my male friends mirror my personality. They're softer.

They don't feel the need to be headstrong or to compete innately with each other.

My best friend, his name is Mateo.

I really trust him.

It's the type of relationship where we just, there's a mutual vulnerability.

I know it's cliche, but my wife actually is my best friend.

With her, there was this natural genuineness.

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