Drunk, ambitious, in love? Or maybe you're just looking for God. From the sensual to the downright scheming, respondents in a new US study owned up to scores of unusual motives for having sex.
In the study by the University of Texas at Austin, the people surveyed surprised psychologists by giving 237 separate reasons for sex -- suggesting there are far more stimulants at play than may previously have been known.
"We found that people are having sex for lots of other reasons" beyond sheer arousal or a drive for procreation, said psychologist Cindy Meston, lead author of the paper published in the August issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior.
unusual
Alongside predictable claims such as "I was `horny,'" "I was drunk," and "I was in love," was a catalogue of other "infrequent" justifications, from the sublime to the shocking.
Among them: "I wanted to get closer to God"; "I felt sorry for the person"; "I wanted to punish myself"; and "I was slumming."
Both men and women reported doing it to get a job or promotion, or because they wanted to be "used or degraded."
Another response stated: "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease."
Some claimed it was an aid to good sleep or a headache cure.
Others even said they had done it because they wanted to have children.
Meston said she was surprised by apparent similarities between the genders indicated in the study.
The sexes shared 20 of the 25 top reasons, with the sheer carnal aspect the top motivator for both men and women: The study cites "pure attraction" as the most common trigger for a coupling.
"The stereotype that men have sex for physical reasons and women have sex for love -- our data didn't really support that," Meston said.
She also tossed out another sex stereotype, saying that according to the study men are more likely to endorse having sex in order to get favors.
motivation
The study identified a series of broad motivation types: physical ("The person was too `hot' to resist"), emotional, insecurity and "goal attainment" ("I wanted to change the topic of conversation").
The survey questioned 400 students and other volunteers at the university in order to draw up a list of motivations, which were then put to some 1,500 undergraduates to tick off.
Meston acknowledged the study was limited to the expressed sexual habits of students and also that people might have been reluctant to cite socially unacceptable motivations, such as the desire to make money or punish a partner.
The report also pointed out that some of the less common motivations, such as deliberately passing on a sexual disease, could nevertheless be fatal, while the common motive of vengeance or jealousy could lead to violence.
The 45th most common reason cited by men for having sex was that their partner "had beautiful eyes" -- a criterion which did not feature among women's top motivations.
"One person's seemingly trivial reason for having sex might well be another person's magnificent obsession," wrote Meston and her co-author, David Buss.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia