Need to shop at Amazon? Purchase items through the above link to support The Psychology of Human Sexuality
Want to be notified of updates to this blog? Like The Psychology of Human Sexuality page on Facebook or subscribe to the RSS feed.
______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013 at 6:01AM 
Every Friday on the blog, I answer people’s questions about sex, love, and relationships. This week’s question comes from a reader who wanted to know the best sexual position for heterosexual couples.
What is the best position for penile-vaginal intercourse?
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 10:40AM 
Just last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration announced that Plan B One-Step (a form of emergency contraception) had been approved for sale over the counter to women and girls age 15 and over. Prior to that, the only way to get the drug was to ask a pharmacist. In addition, women under age 17 could not get it without a doctor's prescription. The FDA's recent decision has been met with controversy, particularly the lowering of the age limit. However, taking control of the drug away from pharmacists is a positive development because research reveals that a shockingly high number of teen girls of legal age are being incorrectly told by their pharmacists that they cannot purchase the medication, even in pharmacies where the drug is in stock.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 6:00AM 
Same-sex behavior has long been a conundrum for evolutionary psychologists. From an evolutionary standpoint, a trait cannot evolve unless it is linked to reproductive success (i.e., it has to help us pass our genes along to future generations). However, same-sex activity obviously limits one’s ability to reproduce, so why does it persist in the population? Most explanations I have seen to date have focused on providing an explanation for why male same-sex behavior is adaptive (e.g., the "gay uncle hypothesis," which says that having a gay uncle is adaptive because they provide resources to care for their nieces and nephew). In contrast, female same-sex behavior has largely been left out of the picture…until now. A new paper published in Evolutionary Psychology lays out a hypothesis for why women seem to have evolved a fluid or “flexible” sexuality.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 6:00AM 
To date, most research on prostitution has focused on describing and understanding those who are selling sex. But what do we know about the buyers? Check out the infographic below to learn how many men say they've visited a prostitute before, what types of sexual activities they engaged in, and some of the reasons they bought sex.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Monday, May 13, 2013 at 6:00AM 
In a recent piece on Salon entitled “My Virginity Mistake,” author Jessica Ciencin Henriquez talks about how an abstinence pledge ruined her marriage. In her words: “Without having sex before marriage, I blindly walked up an aisle and committed myself to a man who didn’t know me and gave my long-held virginity to someone with whom I had no more chemistry than a second cousin.” The crux of her piece is that sex is too important to a relationship to save it for the wedding night and that couples need to establish sexual compatibility before tying the knot. In light of this article, I thought it would be worth taking a look at what the science has to say on this topic. Does your sexual satisfaction and chance of relationship success really depend upon when you start having sex?
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 at 6:01AM 
Every Friday on the blog, I answer people’s questions about sex, love, and relationships. This week’s question comes from a reader who wanted to know whether it is common for bisexual individuals to be more attracted to one sex than the other.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 6:00AM 
Kinsey Reporter is a new smartphone app that lets people around the world anonymously record the details of their sex lives any time, any place. This app is available for free on both Apple and Android mobile platforms and is overseen by a joint partnership between The Kinsey Institute and the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 6:00AM 
The first in-home HIV testing kit, OraQuick, was approved for use less than a year ago. The kit retails for $40 and is available for purchase from Amazon and most major pharmacies. The test itself is completely painless (no need for blood and needles) and simply involves taking a quick swab inside the mouth. Results are provided in just 20 minutes and are pretty accurate (although, as with any medical test, it is not perfect). All of this certainly sounds good; however, there are some who are asking just what effect this test will ultimately have on people's health and behavior.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:50PM 
The Internet exploded today with stories about an incredibly dangerous “sex superbug” at our doorstep. Some of the more provocative headlines included “Sex superbug could be ‘worse than AIDS’” (CNBC) and “New sex superbug could be global killer, doctors warn” (The Sun). All of these stories went on to talk about a very aggressive strain of gonorrhea known as HO41 that is resistant to all known antibiotics (and, no, I don’t know whether scientists were trying to be funny when they named this STI “ho-41”). Moreover, the stories talked about how the infection is spread quickly and easily and can lead to death “in a matter of days.” Time for a global panic, right? Hold your horses, because in the rush to report this news quickly, a number of journalists failed to check their facts.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:00AM 
One of the most common concerns men have about their bodies is the size of their penis. Research indicates that 35% of gay men1 and 45% of heterosexual men2 say they wish they could be a different size—and almost all of these men want to be larger (less than 2% wish they were smaller). Why is this the case? Because guys are constantly told that “bigger is better,” especially by the porn industry, where men who practically have third legs are routinely glorified. As a result of this social pressure, guys are increasingly going under the knife in order to enhance the size of their packages. But do these surgeries work as promised and are they worth the exorbitant costs?
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Friday, May 3, 2013 at 6:01AM “The issue is that continued exposure can cause long-term or even life-long neuroplastic change in the brain.” - ASAP Science on pornography addiction
This intriguing ASAP Science video explores some of the neurobiological research into pornography addiction. Although ASAP generally does a great job with their videos and this one makes some interesting and perfectly valid points, I'm not fully convinced by some of its claims.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 6:02AM 
A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled “How often should married couples have sex? What happens when he says ‘more’ and she says ‘no?” caused quite a stir this past week. The original piece told the tale of a married couple (Chris and Afton) that developed a sexual desire discrepancy (the clinical term for a case in which one partner wants more sex than the other). The couple communicated with each other about the discrepancy, read a self-help book together, and ultimately worked through it. That’s a positive outcome, right? Judging by the responses that appeared on Jezebel, The Week, New York Magazine, and several other websites, this is anything but a happy ending. The problem? The partner who desired more sex in this scenario was male and the one who wanted less sex was female.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Monday, April 29, 2013 at 6:01AM 
Many psychologists believe that jealousy has evolutionary roots. The theory is that heterosexual men evolved a tendency to worry about their partner being sexually unfaithful because they want to avoid ending up in a situation in which they are expending resources to raise a child that is not their own. In contrast, it is thought that women evolved a tendency to be worried about their partner being emotionally unfaithful because if he leaves, she may need to fend for her children all by herself. A variety of studies have provided support for this theory, indicating that men are more jealous about the prospect of their partner sleeping around, while women are more jealous about the thought of their partner establishing an intimate relationship with someone else.1 But what happens when reproductive concerns don't factor into the equation? Research has revealed that both gay men and lesbians typically show more concern with emotional infidelity than sexual infidelity (i.e., the pattern doesn't really change for women, but it does for men).1 These findings suggest the intriguing possibility that bisexual men might show different jealousy patterns based upon the sex of the person they’re dating.
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Friday, April 26, 2013 at 6:00AM 
Every Friday on the blog, I answer people’s questions about sex, love, and relationships. This week’s question comes from a reader who wanted to know whether faking orgasms is something unique to women, or if guys do it too.
I had a rather lively conversation with some of my friends the other day about faking orgasms, with the general focus being the myth that men don't or can't fake orgasms. The conversation I had seemed to suggest that faking orgasms is not all that uncommon among men since everyone seemed to have at least one experience doing it, but obviously that is just my group of friends. So is faking orgasms a common experience for men?
Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 6:00AM 
The fascinating world of “teledildonics” (i.e., sex toys that can be controlled remotely via a computer or smartphone) continues to grow in ways that many of us never thought possible. For example, last year brought us the invention of LovePalz, a sex toy that senses your body’s movements and wirelessly relays them to your partner’s corresponding toy. So much for phone sex! The latest addition to the teledildonics family is Fundawear, a set of remote-controlled undergarments produced by condom manufacturer Durex.
