Grain of Science - Female orgasm linked to partner’s income
Women married to wealthy men have more frequent orgasms than those whose partners were not rich.
Women married to wealthy men have more frequent orgasms than those whose partners were not rich. A recent study by the University of Groningen psychologist, Thomas Pollet and co-author Daniel Nettle, found that male partner income correlated strongly and positively with female orgasm frequency.
In the study, Chinese women who were dating or married to wealthy male partners, reported having orgasms more frequently than women whose partners made less. And this income effect panned out even after the authors ruled out a host of extraneous variables, including health, happiness, education, the woman’s personal income and “westernisation.â€
They explained that having great hope of future security in a partner relaxed wives to ‘give it all’.
Earlier studies among animals had also linked orgasm to the status and wealth of the male sexual partners. Japanese macaque females display the “orgasm-like†clutching reaction more often when they are mating with high-status males.
Together, these findings vindicate evolutionary psychologist David Barash’s argument that female orgasm is a “signal whereby a female’s body tells her brain that she is sexually engaged with a dominant individual.â€
Pollet and Nettle point out that female orgasm may be linked to male income because money (resources) is a reliable indicator of the male’s long-term investing in offspring and it may also reflect desirable underlying genetic characteristics. In this light, female orgasm may serve an emotional bonding role, motivating sexual behaviour — and hence conception — with high status males.
In the study, Chinese women who were dating or married to wealthy male partners, reported having orgasms more frequently than women whose partners made less. And this income effect panned out even after the authors ruled out a host of extraneous variables, including health, happiness, education, the woman’s personal income and “westernisation.â€
They explained that having great hope of future security in a partner relaxed wives to ‘give it all’.
Earlier studies among animals had also linked orgasm to the status and wealth of the male sexual partners. Japanese macaque females display the “orgasm-like†clutching reaction more often when they are mating with high-status males.
Together, these findings vindicate evolutionary psychologist David Barash’s argument that female orgasm is a “signal whereby a female’s body tells her brain that she is sexually engaged with a dominant individual.â€
Pollet and Nettle point out that female orgasm may be linked to male income because money (resources) is a reliable indicator of the male’s long-term investing in offspring and it may also reflect desirable underlying genetic characteristics. In this light, female orgasm may serve an emotional bonding role, motivating sexual behaviour — and hence conception — with high status males.