Study finds the 237 reasons to have sex

UT researchers say it's not so obvious after all

By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Some said they thought it would be good exercise. Others cited the relief they thought it would provide from boredom. A few admitted they wanted to be more popular, get a promotion or impress friends.

And some confessed they did it for revenge.

Six decades after Alfred Kinsey's findings on sexuality shocked America, two University of Texas at Austin psychologists have found some surprising answers to a question most people don't bother to ask: why people have sex.

"I was driven to do this study because of all the different reasons I hear women give for having sex, but I never expected this richness of answers," said Cindy Meston, an associate professor of psychology and study co-author. "Motivation for sex is not as straightforward as people think."

For instance, headaches and "not tonight, honey" may go together in most people's minds, but respondents of both sexes said they'd had sex "to get rid of a headache." They didn't say whether it worked.

In all, Meston and colleague David Buss catalogued 237 reasons, the most popular of which predictably involved lust and pleasure. But others ranged from "I wanted to feel closer to God" to "I wanted the attention" to "I wanted to keep my partner from straying."

A few respondents even said they wanted to give someone a sexually transmitted disease.

Meston said the study, published in the August issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior, is the first of its kind. She speculated that researchers, like everyone else, probably assumed the motivations for sex were pretty obvious.

Forces of attraction

To come up with the list, Meston and Buss asked 444 men and women, age 17 to 52, to list reasons why they, or people they've known, have had sex. They then had 1,500 undergraduate students at UT-Austin rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale of how often they applied to their experiences.

Twenty of the top 25 reasons given were the same for men and women, and the No. 1 for both was "I was attracted to the person."

"I was surprised there wasn't a great gender difference," said Meston. "Women were more likely to say they wanted to express their love for the person, but they were very quick to also cite physical reasons and out-of-control hormones most people associate with men."

Meston, who is continuing to collect data for follow-up studies, acknowledged that college students' out-of-control hormones tilt the results. Future studies will focus on other age groups, ethnic groups and religious people. Metson said she also wants to find out about the outcome of sex for which people gave particular reasons.

Despite youthful answers like "the person was too hot to resist," Meston said she was struck that the college students gave some reasons that might offer lessons for people of all ages, such as that sex helped them get to sleep.

"For older couples in which the sex drive is mismatched, it might be instructive to learn that not everybody is having sex for pleasure," she said. "Nothing's wrong with you — you just might need to find your own reason for having sex."

Meston stressed the study was not finished, having heard many other reasons since the list came out Tuesday. She urged people to add their own reasons for having — or not having — sex at her Web site at www.mestonlab.com.

WHAT'S YOUR REASON?

Psychology researchers at the University of Texas say they found four major factors for why their subjects had sex:

• Physical: "It seemed like good exercise" "I was curious about sex" "The person was a good dancer"

• Goal-based: "I wanted to have a baby" "I wanted to be popular" "I wanted to give someone a sexually transmitted disease"

• Emotional: "I wanted to feel connected" "I wanted to say 'thank you.'"

• Insecurity-based: "I wanted the attention" "My partner kept insisting" "I wanted to keep my partner from straying"