In college study on reasons to have sex, love takes a back seat to doing it ‘because it feels good’

Forget strong emotional attachment. It’s all about ‘feeling good.’ Via CBS/AP (emphasis mine):

After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations.

It’s more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.

College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex — they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and “it feels good,” according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.

Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: “I was attracted to the person.”

Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.

[…]

Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women — ranging in age from 17 to 52 — to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from “It’s fun” which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to “I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease” which ranked on the bottom by women.

The latter “wasn’t endorsed with high frequency, but nevertheless this is a pretty serious reason with a whole lot of negative social consequences,” Meston told CBS News.

Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.

And the top ten are as follows:

Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex For Men

I was attracted to the person.

It feels good.

I wanted to experience physical pleasure.

It’s fun.

I wanted to show my affection to the person.

I was sexually aroused and wanted the release.

I was “horny.”

I wanted to express my love for the person.

I wanted to achieve an orgasm.

I wanted to please my partner.

Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex For Women

I was attracted to the person.

I wanted to experience physical pleasure.

It feels good.

I wanted to show my affection to the person.

I wanted to express my love for the person.

I was sexually aroused and wanted the release.

I was “horny.”

It’s fun.

I realized I was in love.

I was “in the heat of the moment.”

I always knew that the attitudes towards love at colleges and universities were bad, but not that bad. Welcome to “If it feels good, do it” – Version 10.0, 2007 edition.

Semi-related: Dawn Eden checks out what Planned Parenthood New York City is up to. And it ain’t pretty.