We’ve been aware for a while now that the best relationships generally seem to blossom from actual friendships. Now we have actual scientific proof to back up the theory.

A new study from the University of Texas is telling us that if you and your partner were friends before taking the relationship leap, you’re more likely to overlook any slacking in the physical attractiveness department.

Good news for those permanently stuck in the friend zone?

Lead researcher Lucy Hunt says that having more time to “get acquainted” might just “make that person appealing in ways that outshine more easily observable characteristics such as physical attractiveness.”

The study was all about the physical attraction of love at first sight, a hotly contested topic in the research world, FYI.

Lucy and her colleagues gathered data from 167 couples, 100 married couple and 67 who were dating. The couples had been together for as few as three months to as long as 53 years, with an average relationship length of eight years and eight months.

What Lucy was interested in was how much time affects how attractive the partners were to each other.

The answer was simple; showing that “having the time to interact with others in diverse settings affords more opportunities to form unique impressions that go beyond one’s initial snap judgments.”

Basically, that super-hot guy in the club may be less than appealing two days later when you’re trying to hold a conversation over dinner.

But your friend Greg, who knows your Netflix guilty-pleasures and was there when your pet fish met his untimely end might be starting to look pretty cute after three years of friendship.

We kind of knew this already, no? Personality generally plays just as big a role as physical attractiveness in romantic relationships, yes?

It is good to know that science is actually backing us up on this though. Who knows, maybe you’ll start looking at some of your guy friends in a different light.