Today is Two Questions Day.
Question #1: Do some researchers choose topics to attract attention?
Question #2: Do women pretend orgasm to retain a mate?
The following study sheds light on at least one of today’s questions:
“Do Women Pretend Orgasm to Retain a Mate?” Farnaz Kaighobadi, Todd K. Shackelford [pictured here] and Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford, Archives of Sexual Behavior, epub November 2011. The authors, at Columbia University in New York City and at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, explain:
“We obtained self-report data from 453 heterosexual women (M age, 21.8 years) in a long-term relationship (M length, 32.8 months) drawn from universities and surrounding communities in the southeastern United States. The results indicated that (1) women who perceived higher risk of partner infidelity were more likely to report pretending orgasm, (2) women who reported greater likelihood of pretending orgasm also reported performing more mate retention behaviors, and (3) women’s perceptions of partner infidelity risk mediated the relationship between pretending orgasm and the performance of cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors, such as Intersexual Negative Inducements (“Flirted with someone in front of my partner”) and Intrasexual Negative Inducements (“Yelled at a woman who looked at my partner”).”