Why Women Have Sex?

While figuring out what women want has stumped men for centuries, understanding how they think about sex may have just gotten easier. Cindy Meston and David Buss, psychologists at the University of Texas, interviewed over 1,000 women links of london around the world for their book Why Women Have Sex and managed to come up with 237 reasons, ranging from the predictable — commitment — to the puzzling — curing a headache. Spoiler alert: love may be further down on the list than one might think. TIME spoke to Buss about the myriad mind games, turn-ons and turn-offs involved in female sexuality, and what a guy can do to stand a chance.

You co-authored a famous 2007 study “Why Humans links of london jewellery Have Sex.” Why focus on women this time around?

We discovered that women’s sexual psychology turned out to be far more complex than we envisioned. [It] deserved an entire book-length treatment.

What differences between men and women did you notice?

There are important gender differences in sexuality, but these must be interpreted within the links of london bracelet context of a high level of similarity. Both women and men have sex because they are physically attracted to the person, for pure pleasure, because they are in love, or simply because they are horny. But within the overall similarity, I’d say women’s sexuality tends to be more linked with love and emotional bonding. Women, more than men, like sex when there’s some kind of emotional connection. Men were more likely to have sex simply because the opportunity presented itself. Women tend to be pickier, especially for short-term sexual links of london charms encounters. And men are more motivated to have sex to boost their status among their peers, although some women in our study also had sex for precisely this reason. (Read more about the chemistry of desire.)

What are the main reasons why women have sex?

The most frequent reasons include: sexual attraction to the person, the desire for physical pleasure, to express affection, to express their love for a person or because they were sexually aroused and wanted release.

Other important reasons are to boost their self-esteem or sexual esteem, to get revenge, to secure “mate insurance” in case a partner dumps them, to relieve pain, to achieve health links of london sweetie benefits such as getting rid of a headache — yes, it works — to decrease stress, to lose weight and as a sleep aid. We devote one chapter to “sexual economics,” which focuses on all the ways in which women have sex as an exchange for other benefits, such as getting her partner to take out the garbage, securing free dinners or getting expensive gifts. We also devote one chapter to what we call “the dark side” of women’s links of london sexuality — when women have sex because they were deceived, coerced or forced into it.