UT Study Asks: Why Have Sex?

"Well,that's a stupid question! Why the hell not?" you may be responding sarcastically as you read the title of this post. But wait; easy, tiger. Apparently this is an area of psychology that has rarely been explored in-depth, until now.

Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss, two psychology researchers at UT-Austin, have recently compiled what they claim is the most thorough, in-depth "taxonomy of sexual motivation" in the history of psychological study. Meston and Buss surveyed nearly 2,000 UT-Austin students and came up with the most common 237 reasons why humans decide to have sex. What these professors found with their research is that, for the most part, people have sex based on fairly predictable motivations. For example, observe the top 5 most popular reasons people gave for having sex (at least, at the University of Texas at Austin):

1. I was attracted to the person.
2. I wanted to experience the physical pleasure.
3. It feels good.
4. I wanted to show my affection to the person.
5. I wanted to express my love for the person.

Okay. So this coincides with Austinist's notions of romanticism with regard to sexual attraction, however unrealistic they may be. And the next 45 most popular reasons cited pretty much follow this theme of attraction and pleasure-seeking. If this study is accurate, it appears as though most of you out there are having sex based on predictable motivations, ranging from love to simple physical pleasure. This makes sense. Austinist feels relieved and reassured.

But as you go further down the list toward the more uncommon answers, you begin to find yourself in stranger, darker territory, and your romantic ideals fall short in attempting to explain human sexual behavior. Observe the top 10 most infrequently cited reasons for having sex:

1. I wanted to give someone else an STD.
2. Someone offered me money to do it.
3. I wanted to get a raise.
4. It was an initiation rite to a club or organization.
5. I wanted to get a job.
6. I wanted to get a promotion.
7. The person offered to give me drugs for doing it.
8. I wanted to punish myself.
9. I wanted to hurt/humiliate the person.
10. I wanted to feel closer to God.

Now, certainly this is all interesting for the progress of Psychology as a science overall, but what we really want to know is: How representative is this list in explaining why Austinites, as a community, have sex? This study was performed on UT-Austin students - probably the majority of whom are undergraduate students taking PSY 301 and acting as subjects in Psych. Department experiments for course credit. We've been there. We also know how sexually active those hedonistic undergrads can be, and that their responses may not be entirely representative of the way the rest of us Austin folk live. Or maybe they are?

Take a look at the entire study here and tell us, Austin: Why do you do it? For love? For pleasure? For money and professional advancement? For spiteful revenge? For something else that we'd never have thought of (and maybe don't want to)?

Image of swans in love courtesy of mozzercork on flickr. Image of money courtesy of Tracy O on flickr.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By s in News on July 31, 2007 3:23 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

piltdownman

#11, obviously sex isn't everything. But it certainly seems sad to be in a relationship where your partner has lost (nearly) all sexual appeal. I'm an adult too (probably much older than you).

#10, Uhh, did you hear that cute little comment from your friends at the playground? Hope your mom doesn't find out you repeated it!

guest

I wouldn't call it a dismal life... sex isn't everything... but hey i'm an adult so there you go.

guest

piltodownman, your "dates" with rosie don't count as "get[ting] laid all the time."

piltdownman

Wow, #7 and #8 dismal lives you've got there! I get laid all the time, but I do it for the pure joy of it (not so someone I don't even want to have sex with will cook for me).

guest

i second #7. if shes not happy, nobody's happy...

guest

looks to me like all we've got so far is a bunch of commenters who aren't getting laid....

lighten up, people!

i "do it" because if i don't, she won't cook for me. there.

miesvanderrobot

#3 and #4, the original article makes the meaning of "infrequently cited" more clear.

The researchers collected the data by first asking more than 400 people to list their reasons for having sex, and then asking more than 1,500 others to rate how important each reason was to them. Although it was a fairly homogenous sample of students at the University of Texas, nearly every one of the 237 reasons was rated by at least some people as their most important motive for having sex.

sean

This research is bogus. We all know that people have sex because god wants us to produce children.

piltdownman

I suspect that "top 10 infrequently sited" thing is a result of the Austinist author trying to make something interesting (and salicious) out of nothing interesting (or salicious). It's most likely simply the least selected "reasons" on a long list of "reasons" supplied by the "researchers."

And to think I almost went to grad school for Ev Psych...

guest

"top 10 most infrequently cited"

um...what? does that mean they were listed only once?

greycat

Simple answer. Having sex is far more enjoyable than not.

That answer is pretty much the entire study wrapped up in a little bow. Why it was even done was a bit...odd.

piltdownman

Simple answer. Having sex is far more enjoyable than not.

Those evolutionary psychologists (and the social ones) love to study the patently obvious. The next step is to come up with some completely unfalsifiable theory to explain their findings.

Stephen Jay Gould was right...