'Wolf-pack' formation takes hold in the UK

'The Hangover' franchise has encouraged British men to form a "wolf-pack."

The social lives of males between the ages of 18-34 has changed since the first of the three movies came out, with 45% claiming they belong to some sort of wolf-pack, 17% actually naming their gang of mates the 'wolf-pack' and 21% saw themselves as the top boss of the pack.

The concept of the wolf-pack was first introduced in the first part of The Hangover trilogy when hapless Alan Garner - who is played Zach Galifianakis - mentioned it while making a roof-top speech. And the term has now embedded itself in popular culture.

On Twitter, the #wolfpack hashtag is mentioned on average 50 times a day by UK users, mostly relating to best friends, trips, and future adventures, with #wolfpack mentioned globally every 90 seconds.

Virgin Media researched into the characteristics of the set of friends and found that 21% saw themselves like Phil - played by Bradley Cooper - who leads the group, 22% described themselves as accident-prone Stu (Ed Helms) and 8% confessed to finding themselves stumbling into to trouble, like Doug (Justin Bartha).