In related news developments, the sun rises in the East.
Seriously folks, this needed a study?
Why People Have Sex: It Feels Good
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It's more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.
College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex _ they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and "it feels good," according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.
Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: "I was attracted to the person."
Well duh...
Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.
"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author. "That's not what I came up with in my findings."
Forget thinking that men are from Mars and women from Venus, "the more we look, the more we find similarity," said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Goldstein, who wasn't part of Meston's study, said the Texas research made a lot of sense and adds to growing evidence that the vaunted differences in the genders may only be among people with sexual problems.
Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women _ ranging in age from 17 to 52 _ to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from "It's fun" which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease" which ranked on the bottom by women.
Hold on, this wasn't ranked on the bottom by men? WTF??
Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.
"None of the gender differences are all that great," Meston said. "Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner."
Reminds me of the old Seinfelt bit, "Women need a reason to have sex, men just need a place".
But this is among college students, when Meston conceded "hormones run rampant." She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.
More breaking news, college students have rampant hormones!
Since her study came out Tuesday, people are coming up with new reasons to have sex.
"Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added," Meston said.
___
On the Net:
University of Texas study "Why Humans Have Sex": http://tinyurl.com/ypzwvr
Cindy Meston's Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory: http://www.mestonlab.com/
Why People Have Sex: It Feels Good
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It's more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.
College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex _ they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and "it feels good," according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.
Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: "I was attracted to the person."
Well duh...
Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.
"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author. "That's not what I came up with in my findings."
Forget thinking that men are from Mars and women from Venus, "the more we look, the more we find similarity," said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Goldstein, who wasn't part of Meston's study, said the Texas research made a lot of sense and adds to growing evidence that the vaunted differences in the genders may only be among people with sexual problems.
Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women _ ranging in age from 17 to 52 _ to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from "It's fun" which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease" which ranked on the bottom by women.
Hold on, this wasn't ranked on the bottom by men? WTF??
Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.
"None of the gender differences are all that great," Meston said. "Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner."
Reminds me of the old Seinfelt bit, "Women need a reason to have sex, men just need a place".
But this is among college students, when Meston conceded "hormones run rampant." She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.
More breaking news, college students have rampant hormones!
Since her study came out Tuesday, people are coming up with new reasons to have sex.
"Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added," Meston said.
___
On the Net:
University of Texas study "Why Humans Have Sex": http://tinyurl.com/ypzwvr
Cindy Meston's Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory: http://www.mestonlab.com/
I saw that headline on my neighbor's Chicago Tribune as I ran out the door this morning, and had the same thought.
ReplyDeleteMore suggested headlines:
"People eat ice cream because it tastes good."
"Most people drive in order to get somewhere."
"Guys read Playboy because there are pictures of naked girls in it."
(except for me, of course-- I just read it for the articles....)
I kind of thought you were an article reader JY. Me? I didn't even realize there was print in Playboy (except for the great old Gahan Wilson cartoons)
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteI have seen a few studies that make me wonder why they spent the time. To bad I can't think of them right now, because they rank right up there with this study.
Those little disclaimers for weight loss products always makes me laugh. They say, "When used with proper diet and exercise" Well, if I had a proper diet and exercised, I wouldn't need their product!
Where does, "Because I needed the money" rate?
ReplyDeletereminds me of an old cartoon where there's these two lab rats talking. the one says, "for 3 weeks now they've fed me a steady diet of soap chips and it makes me sick. For some reason, they find this remarkable."
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm just jealous-- I wanted to be on the research team.
wait, JY-- there's ARTICLES in Playboy?? What page?
ReplyDelete