Sex and Mating Strategy Impact the 13 Basic Reasons for Having Sex

Abstract

There is a large number of varied reasons for having sexual intercourse, ranging from sexual joy and pleasure to less frequent reasons such as wanting to hurt a person or feeling obliged to have sex with someone. The current paper investigated to what degree the reasons for having sex found by Meston and Buss are predicted systematically and independently by sexual strategies theory. The contribution of the paper is threefold: (1) the first reproduction of the factor structure found in the original study, (2) the reproduction in a more gender-egalitarian population investigates claims from social role theory, and (3) a novel set of contributions as preferred mating strategy and sex of respondents interact to predict reasons for having sex. We tested our predictions in a sample of 1372 students. The original factor structure was reproduced. Sex differences were abundant and showed mostly support for sexual strategies theory. Mating context also influenced reasons for having sexual intercourse in accordance with sexual strategies theory, rather than social role theory. The results are discussed with regard to both social role theory and sexual strategies theory, and the impact of studying reasons for sex in an egalitarian society.