What's the secret of hot sex? Science weighs in
(CBS) Looking for a way to amp up your sex life? You can ditch the oysters and sexy lingerie. A new study suggests that the key to hot sex is plain-old empathy.
"Empathetic individuals are more responsive to a partner's needs, and thus initiate a positive feedback cycle," study co-author Dr. Adena Galinsky, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School's Center for Adolescent Health, said in a written statement.
Positive feedback cycle? Is that what they're calling it these days?
Researchers from the university studied the psychological profiles of over 3,200 heterosexual men and women 18 to 26 years of age, all of whom had been in a relationship of three months or longer. They looked for links between self-esteem, autonomy and empathy and three sexual measures - orgasm regularity, and enjoyment of receiving and of giving oral sex.
The findings, published in the June issue of Journal of Adolescent Health, showed that both empathetic men and women had better sex lives. Men only need to show empathy toward their partner to get more satisfaction out of sex, but women also need to feel autonomous and have high self-esteem to enjoy a satisfying sex life.
"Research shows higher barriers for women in knowing and saying what they want," Dr. Galinksy told HealthDay. "It may be more important for them to overcome those barriers, where for men those impediments weren't there."
Those aren't the only areas where men and women differ.
Young men were more satisfied with all three types of sexual enjoyment studied, with nine out of 10 guys saying they orgasm most or all of the time. But less than half of young women in the study reported orgasms with their partner.
The authors were surprised to find men were more likely than women to enjoy performing oral.
"The reality is that the majority of young men really like engaging in activities in which the goal is giving their partner pleasure," Galinsky told LiveScience. "There is a pretty consistent difference between young men and young women."
Is it time to become a better listener?
