237 Reasons : Why People Have Sex

Psychologists have identified 237 new reasons including boredom and spirituality for men and women to want to make love. After 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.

Cindy Meston and team at the University of Texas quizzed more than 2,000 men and women aged 17 to 52 as part of the study and found that 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.”

“None of the gender differences are all that great,” Meston said. “Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner.”

But this is among college students, when Meston conceded “hormones run rampant.” She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.

“Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added,” Meston said. (source)

UPDATE: Here is the survey questionnaire containing the Why Have Sex? (YSEX?) Questionnaire. If you think they have missed some reasons please add them in comment. You can also participate in reasons of NOT having sex visit the researcher’s website.