A back-up partner, standby lover, or spare-tyre lover is a person anticipated as a potential future romantic/sexual partner in the event of the failure or unforeseen end of a current relationship. The main purpose of maintaining a back-up partner is to avoid ending up alone and heartbroken after breaking up with another lover. The term "spare-tyre lover" (爱情备胎), has become popular on the Internet in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. A study from 2014 found that

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

users in relationships often used the site to maintain

platonic Plato's influence on Western culture was so profound that several different concepts are linked by being called Platonic or Platonist, for accepting some assumptions of Platonism, but which do not imply acceptance of that philosophy as a whole. It ...

friendships they felt could become replacement relationships if required, with men having such contacts at roughly twice the rate of women.

Social context

An unstable current relationship may lead people to seek back-up lovers, particularly long-distance relationships. Some people gain personal confidence from having a back-up lover, appreciating the fact that they are being admired by more than one person.

References

{{Reflist Dating Marriage, unions and partnerships in China Sexuality in China

Social context

See also

References