# Article: Women with more male friends have more sex with their partners, study says



## Theseus (Feb 22, 2013)

Interesting article. Here is one alternate suggestion for women who aren't getting enough sex at home...

Study: Women With More Male Friends Have More Sex Because Partners Fear ‘Sex Rivals’ Â« CBS DC



WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Women who hang out with more male friends and co-workers have more frequent sex with their boyfriends than women who have fewer male influences in their life.
The study — published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology — finds that men often perceive their female partner’s abundance of male friends to be a form of “sperm competition psychology,” in which the men have more sex with their girlfriends due to the potential of “sex rivals.”
The Oakland University study of 393 men in committed, sexual, heterosexual relationships found that human males – just as in nonhuman males – have more sex with their partner when they perceive that their female partner has an excess of male friends posing a “sperm competition risk.” This was made more evident when men perceived that their female partner was considered sexually attractive to the male “sex rivals” in her social circles.
“The results indicate that men whose in-pair partner has more male coworkers and friends (i.e., potential sexual rivals) also perform more frequent in-pair copulations, but only among men who perceive their partner to be particularly attractive relative to assessments of partners by other men in the sample,” write the researchers.
The researchers note that the biological urge for sperm competition is not an unhealthy element of a relationship and is instead simply a subconscious part of “human nature.”
“A lot of work shows that men are sexually aroused by their partner when they estimate a greater likelihood of partner infidelity,” Michael Pham, lead author of the study, explained to Fusion via email. “This does not mean that men want their partner to cheat on them. Rather, this means that if they estimate a greater likelihood of their partner’s infidelity, then they may (subconsciously) want to have sex with her to enter into sperm competition.”
“This is human nature,” Pham told Fusion. “We need to be reminded that our partner is valuable to us and desirable to others. This makes us keep working at maintaining relationship satisfaction.” Adding, “Finding that right balance of inducing your partner’s jealousy will optimize a couple’s sex life.”
The study states that porn featuring two men having sex with one woman causes men to release more sperm due to a sense of “sex rivals” in the environment.
The nearly 400 couples studied had an average relationship length of 35.9 months and the men were asked to report on a series of issues including their female partner’s attractiveness, number of her male friends and details of their own sex life.
Todd K. Shackelford, co-author of the study, told The Daily Mail that the study results show men are competitive with other men by nature – even if the threat is just perceived.
“They [the women] don’t even have to see them having sex with other males. It’s just the presence,” he noted.
– Benjamin Fearnow


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## ConanHub (Aug 9, 2013)

Maybe the women are just getting revved up and bringing home the heat.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

Totally agree Theseus! And it works both ways from what I've seen. 

Women who hang on their husbands and can't seem to go anywhere or do anything without them don't seem to keep their husbands attraction for very long. 

Men who don't have their own slice of life and all their time devoted to home and family also forfeit some of their attraction.


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## syhoybenden (Feb 21, 2013)

I am sure they are having more sex, just not necessarily with their 'partners'.


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## Thound (Jan 20, 2013)

syhoybenden said:


> I am sure they are having more sex, just not necessarily with their 'partners'.


Ha! Beat me to it.


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## unbelievable (Aug 20, 2010)

Women who hang out with men probably have a higher-than-average interest in men. It wouldn't be surprising they would have more sex with men. Their partners would likely have a higher-than-average level of security and trust as well.


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## Married but Happy (Aug 13, 2013)

This study is another confirmation of sperm competition. The men want more sex to ensure that their sperm is in their partner's reproductive tract to block or kill competitor sperm, and to do that they need to introduce fresh sperm more frequently than with maintenance sex. This is a response to even the remote possibility of competition. It sounds like a win-win for the couple as long as she's not rejecting her partner - and not cheating.


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## Theseus (Feb 22, 2013)

Oh rats... I meant to put this in the Sex in Marriage section actually. There are so many sexless marriages there, some of them can use any help they can get...


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## jld (Dec 1, 2013)

unbelievable said:


> Women who hang out with men probably have a higher-than-average interest in men. It wouldn't be surprising they would have more sex with men. Their partners would likely have a higher-than-average level of security and trust as well.


I think secure men are indeed likely to trust their women more. They chose them carefully, after all.


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## DoF (Mar 27, 2014)

I guess the big question is, are they banging their male friends too? No study on that hehe

My wife has 0 male friends and our sex life is great.


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## ChristianGrey (Nov 27, 2014)

Who funds these kind of studies?

Knowing the kind of male friends, women love to hang out with, I'd say those male friends are looking for husbands and boyfriends themselves!

Or maybe it makes sense. After having such pseudo-male company, they are left wanting full sex with their partners.


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## DoF (Mar 27, 2014)

unbelievable said:


> Women who hang out with men probably have a higher-than-average interest in men. It wouldn't be surprising they would have more sex with men. Their partners would likely have a higher-than-average level of security and trust as well.


It has nothing to do with security or trust.

And everything to do with being respectful towards your marriage and appropriate.

Sure I trust my wife around other males.

But I also know why other males would hang out with her. Under that foundation and those goals, no it's not respectful or appropriate for her to do so.


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## jaquen (Mar 1, 2012)

The study results don't seem to support the notion that sperm rivalry ignites, resulting in more sex, simply because a woman has male friends and co-workers.

It supports the idea that the male partner perceives that their partner is attractive to said male friends and co-workers.

That's a huge difference. If a man doesn't think his wife is all that hot, and she generally doesn't attract the attention of men, it's not an issue. 

Which means this whole study simply boils down to: attractive people typically have more sex with their partner and more people want to have sex with them. 

Ground breaking stuff, I tell you.

Nobody should be shocked that a woman hot enough to get regular attention from men, or even the perception of sexual attention in the eyes of her partner, is going to be getting more at home. 

Which confirms the sad reality that one of the greatest roots of sexless relationships is also one of the least discussed: your partner just doesn't find you all that attractive/hot/sexy anymore, and likely doesn't perceive most other do either.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

> The nearly 400 couples studied had an average relationship length of 35.9 months


That might be a long term relationship but it's not a long term marriage, by my standards. So why did they break up? The fact that the female partner was constantly treading the edges with her male friends too much for the male partner to deal with, perhaps....

The other phenomenon to remember are the less than attractive women who have a lot of personality. So they have LOTS of friends, both male and female, but very few dates and romantic relationships. 

I had a classmate like that. Everyone LOVED her in that lovey kind of way. She had a closet full of bridesmaid dresses. And finally in her 30s, she found a nice guy to marry. I don't get the impression she was getting a lot of sex (or even offers for sex) before she met her husband.


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## Married but Happy (Aug 13, 2013)

NextTimeAround said:


> That might be a long term relationship but it's not a long term marriage, by my standards. *So why did they break up?* The fact that the female partner was constantly treading the edges with her male friends too much for the male partner to deal with, perhaps....


They didn't.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

Married but Happy said:


> They didn't.


The article says:



> The nearly 400 couples studied had an average relationship length of 35.9 months


that says to me, unless one partner died, they had to break up because the average relationship only lasted less than 3 YEARS.

What do you understand from that quote in the article I repeated here?


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