When it comes to casual sex, it’s widely believed that women prefer a relationship over a one-time romp. But according to a new study, women are just as keen on casual sex as men are as long as they think it’ll be safe and pleasurable. Casual Sex: Good or Bad? How About Both!

The old theory (called the Sexual Strategies Theory) was based on an oft-cited 1989 study in which a group of women asked men they’d just met to have sex, and then vice versa. When the women were offering sex the men accepted about three-quarters of the time. When the genders were reversed and men asked female strangers for sex, all the women said no. Researchers have pointed to that study and theorized that women are less interested in casual sex because they need a reliable baby daddy to help them raise a resultant babe. Men are more interested in one-night stands because they’re evolutionarily driven to have as many babies as possible, not to take care of the tikes.

So was the first study wrong? Not exactly, it just leaves out one important factor: pleasure. The authors of this latest study look to “Pleasure Theory,” a new concept that says we’re actually motivated to have sex because it feels good, and having babies is just a happy (or not-so-happy) side effect. Their recent research shows that it’s not that women don’t want casual sex—they just don’t want casual bad sex. 

Terri Conley, the University of Michigan Psychologist behind the study explains it this way: “When women are presented with proposers who are equivalent in terms of safety and sexual prowess, they will be equally likely as men to engage in casual sex.” In layman’s terms that means if a man invites a lady home for a one-night stand, she’ll accept if she thinks he won’t be violent and is just as skilled in the bedroom as she is. Casual Sex Study Finds Booty Calls Have Better Sex

What factors would influence your decision to have casual sex?

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