Excuses, Excuses: Three in Four (75%) say their Friends Have Cancelled Plans on Them

Toronto, ON, Oct 3, 2024 — Three quarters of Canadian men (75%) admit to hanging out with their friends less in-person as they get older, up 6 points from last year’s survey, according to the second annual Budweiser Friendship Survey conducted by Ipsos. Moreover, only 8% of men see their friends multiple times per week, down 6 points from last year. 

Part of this decline could be attributed to excuse making: 69% of Canadians admit to cancelling plans with friends and 75% have been on the receiving end of cancelations. For plans they cancelled, 52% say they provided an excuse most (39% always/13% most of the time), while fewer sometimes (15%), rarely (11%) or never (22%) provide an excuse. 

Oftentimes, circumstances (56%) were the primary reason for the excuse, but sometimes it is driven by personal choice (19%) or a mix of both (25%). And among those who canceled for personal reasons or a mix of both, 52% say those excuses were mostly genuine, while the other half admit to mainly making up those excuses (14%) or mixing some truth with some fabrication (34%). Nearly one in four (22%) Canadians confess that they’d be less likely (10% definitely/12% somewhat) less likely to cancel on their friends if they called them out publicly, such as on social media. 

Some, however, make up excuses in order to be with their friends. One in three (35%) men say they’ve cancelled plans in order to watch a hockey game with their buds. 

Excuses aren’t the only culprit to declining camaraderie, as physical distance (43%), prioritizing time with family (37%) and work obligations (32%) are cited as among the leading barriers to spending quality-time in person with friends more often.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 10-24 2024, on behalf of Budweiser. For this survey, a sample of 2,000 Canadians aged 18 years and over was interviewed. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Sean Simpson
Senior Vice President, Canada, Public Affairs
[email protected]

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