33 Results

Sex Science

June 1, 2011

Low self-esteem girls have more sex and earlier than higher self-esteem girls

Recent News and Research into Sociology and Social Issues

 

The study indicated that self-esteem seemed to play a different role for each gender. While girls with higher self-esteem were less likely to have sex early, the researchers found, the opposite was true for boys.

Previous research has examined the various negative consequences of early sexual intercourse in adolescents, but few studies have aimed to identify the role self-esteem plays when young people choose to begin having sex.

In the current study, lead investigator Dr Gregory D Zimet of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and colleagues evaluated 188 seventh graders between the ages of 12 and 14. The study participants had identified themselves as virgins in a questionnaire that also measured various aspects of their self-esteem.

Nearly 2 years later, the same teens, now aged 14 to 16 and in ninth grade, were surveyed again with the same questionnaire.

“Self-esteem functioned differently for boys and girls in terms of its relationship with the initiation of sexual intercourse,” Zimet told Reuters Health in an interview.

“Seventh-grade girls with high self-esteem were less likely to subsequently initiate intercourse, whereas seventh-grade boys with high self-esteem were more likely to initiate intercourse,” he said.

“In a sense,” he said, “the different findings from boys and girls may reflect the larger society’s differential attitudes about sexuality based on gender. Given that sexual behavior among girls has often been characterized by society as more socially deviant, it may be that high self-esteem in girls acts as a protective factor by helping them to resist peer pressure to become sexually involved before they are ready,” Zimet noted.

“Also, girls with low self-esteem may initiate a sexual relationship in order to feel better about themselves, by providing themselves with the comfort derived from intimacy and/or a sense of maturity,” he suggested.

 

 

May 31, 2011

Different HIV Rates Among Gay Men And Straight People Not Fully Explained By Sexual Behavior

Weird right?

Different HIV Rates Among Gay Men And Straight People Not Fully Explained By Sexual Behavior

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2007) — Differences in sexual behaviours do not fully explain why the US HIV epidemic affects gay men so much more than straight men and women, claims research published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Different HIV Rates Among Gay Men And Straight People Not Fully Explained By Sexual Behavior

 

In 2005, over half of new HIV infections diagnosed in the US were among gay men, and up to one in five gay men living in cities is thought to be HIV positive.

Yet two large population surveys showed that most gay men had similar numbers of unprotected sexual partners per year as straight men and women.

US researchers applied a series of carefully calculated equations in different scenarios to study the rate at which HIV infection has spread among gay men and straight men and women.

They used figures taken from two national surveys to estimate how many sex partners gay men and straight men and women have, and what proportion of gay men have insertive or receptive anal sex, or both.

They then set these figures against accepted estimates of how easily HIV is transmitted by vaginal and anal sex to calculate the size of the HIV epidemic in gay men and straight men and women.

The results showed that for the straight US population to experience an epidemic of HIV infection as great as that of gay men, they would need to average almost five unprotected sexual partners every year.

This is a rate almost three times that of gay men.

But to end the HIV epidemic, gay men would need to have rates of unprotected sex several times lower than those currently evident among the straight population. This is because transmission rates are higher for anal sex than they are for vaginal sex, say the authors.

But “role versatility,” whereby people adopt both “insertive” and “receptive roles,” also plays a part, they add.

A gay man can be easily infected through unprotected receptive sex, and then infect someone else through insertive sex.

Gay men are therefore far more susceptible to the spread of the virus through the population, even with the same numbers of unprotected sexual partners.

 

 

May 31, 2011

Ugly Truth About One Night Stands: Men Less Choosy Than Women

Ugly Truth About One Night Stands: Men Less Choosy Than Women

 
ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009)
Men are far more interested in casual sex than women. While men need to be exceptionally attractive to tempt women to consider casual sex, men are far less choosy. These findings1 by Dr Achim Schützwohl, from the Department of Psychology at Brunel University in the UK, and his team are published online in Springer’s journal Human Nature.

The research shows that men are more likely than women to report having had casual sex and they express a greater desire for it than do women. It is also thought that women but not men raise their standards of attractiveness for a casual sex partner.

Dr Schützwohl and his colleagues looked at the influence of an imagined requestor’s physical attractiveness on men’s and women’s willingness to accept three distinct offers: go out, go to their apartment and go to bed with them. A total of 427 male and 433 female students from the US, Germany and Italy answered a questionnaire. They were asked to imagine being approached by a member of the opposite sex, described as either “slightly unattractive”, “moderately attractive” or “exceptionally attractive”. They then rated how likely they would be to accept each of the three offers.

The authors found that the requestor’s looks affected men and women differently. Across all three levels of requestor attractiveness, men were more likely to go out, go to their apartment and go to bed with them than were women. German men were less likely to go out with the requestor and go to their apartment than American and Italian men. Italian men were more likely to go to bed with the requestor than were American men. German men were even less likely than American men to go to bed with the requestor. These differences highlight cultural differences in sexual morals and preferences.

For each of the three offers, men were more likely to accept when the hypothetical woman was moderately or exceptionally attractive than when she was slightly unattractive, but whether she was moderately or exceptionally attractive made no difference. Women however placed more importance on the requestor’s good looks. They were more likely to accept the apartment and bed requests from an exceptionally attractive man than from either a moderately attractive or slightly unattractive man.

The authors conclude: “While men are not entirely insensitive to their requestor’s attractiveness, women have higher standards and are more likely to engage in casual sex with an exceptionally attractive man than with a less attractive man.”

 

 

May 31, 2011

Security ‘bad news for sex drive’ – I.E if a woman feels she has “caught” a man, her sex-drive goes down

BBC NEWS | Health | Security ‘bad news for sex drive’

A woman’s sex drive begins to plummet once she is in a secure relationship, according to research.

Researchers from Germany found that four years into a relationship, less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex.

Conversely, the team found a man’s libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship.

Writing in the journal Human Nature, the scientists said the differences resulted from how humans had evolved.

For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male
Dr Dietrich Klusmann

The researchers from Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital interviewed 530 men and women about their relationships.

They found 60% of 30-year-old women wanted sex “often” at the beginning of a relationship, but within four years of the relationship this figure fell to under 50%, and after 20 years it dropped to about 20%.

In contrast, they found the proportion of men wanting regular sex remained at between 60-80%, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship.

Tenderness

The study also revealed tenderness was important for women in a relationship.

About 90% of women wanted tenderness, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship, but only 25% of men who had been in a relationship for 10 years said they were still seeking tenderness from their partner.

Dr Dietrich Klusmann, lead author of the study and a psychologist from Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital, believed the differences were down to human evolution.

He said: “For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male.”

But women, he said, have evolved to have a high sex drive when they are initially in a relationship in order to form a “pair bond” with their partner.

But, once this bond is sealed a woman’s sexual appetite declines, he added.

He said animal behaviour studies suggest this could be because females may be diverting their sexual interest towards other men, in order to secure the best combinations of genetic material for their offspring.

Or, he said, this could be because limiting sex may boost their partner’s interest in it.

Professor George Fieldman, an evolutionary psychologist from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, said: “These findings seem to fit in with anecdotal studies and his explanations seem plausible.

“The rational for why a woman’s sex drive declines may be down to supply and demand. If something is in infinite supply, the perceived value would drop.”

 

 

May 22, 2011

Study finds that women lie about number of partners, EVEN in anonymous surveys

Whats wrong with female’s views

 

(From the newscientist.com) Fisher and Alexander surveyed over 200 unmarried, heterosexual college students aged 18 to 25.

One group filled in questionnaires having been told the researcher might view their responses. A second group filled in the survey completely anonymously, alone in a room. A third group had electrodes placed on their hand, forearms and neck and were told they were being attached to a polygraph or lie detector machine – although there was in fact no working machine.

 

Women who thought their responses might be read said they had had an average of 2.6 sexual partners, compared with 3.4 partners for those who thought their answers were anonymous. But those who thought they would be caught out by the polygraph reported an average of 4.4 partners. In contrast, men’s answers did not vary significantly. Those attached to the lie-detector reported an average of 4.0 partners compared with 3.7 for men who thought their answers would be read.

 

Summary: Females lied about their sexual behaviour on a scale to close to 2x. It could have been worse, some of them may have still lied even with the lie detector test! Note, that females are actually more promiscuous than males are, but pretend to be less!