Science/Tech

The More Women Want Sex The Higher Their Standards, Gender Study Reveals

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Feb 14, 2013 03:06 PM EST

For single men looking for easy prey this Valentine's Day, you've got your work cut out for you, especially if you're below a six.

A new study reveals that the more women want sex, the more they up their standards when choosing a short-term mate.

Researchers found that this is in direct contrast to statistics for men, after they study revealed that men are more likely to lower their standards the more "sexually hyperactive" they become.

Israeli researchers from Bar Ilan University conducted a study with 78 male and female students.  Participants were asked to fill out surveys that asked them the degree to which they each agreed with statements like: "My desire for sex is often stronger than my partner's" and "Having sex isn't high on my priority list".

Based on their answers, the participants were then placed on a scale that identified them as somewhere between "sexual hyperactivation" or having heightened sex-related desire and worries and "sexual deactivation" or suppression of sexual behavior and thoughts.

The students were then asked to watch videos of men and women talking about themselves and their lives. Later, researchers asked participants how much they would want to have a short-term relationship with the people in the videos.  The people in the videos had previously been rated for attractiveness by a separate panel of 60 people.

The findings, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, found that while both sexually hyperactivated and deactivated men preferred attractive women, hyper-sexual men were significantly more likely to desire having a short-term relationship with women who were judged to be less attractive.

Essentially, the hyperactivated men were at the stage where they considered any woman good enough for a short-term relationship.

"Sexual hyperactivation seems to make men less selective and make women more selective," the researchers said, according to The Times. Researchers said that the findings are interesting because they appear to go against the laws of sexual supply and demand.

Researchers said that for men who feel sexually hyperactivated, short-term relationships served as efforts to fulfill their "sexual system's goal," whereas for hyperactivated women, their requirement for a short-term relationship is more complex.

From an evolutionary perspective, women engaging in a one night stand will potentially create a child they would have to look after on their own.  Therefore, the child from a short-term mate should at least have good genes.

Researchers wrote that "most women are expected to rely on 'feminine' strategies... preferring dominant and attractive men as short-term mates," according to The Times.

Researchers said that the latest findings support the theory of optimal male evolutionary strategies, based on the idea that men contribute fewer resources to child rearing compared to women.

"Men, being the less investing sex, are expected to be less selective than women," researchers wrote. 

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