The evolution of same-sex attraction: Exploring women's willingness to have sex with other women in order to satisfy their partners

Menelaos Apostolou, Christoforos Christoforou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

About one in five women are not attracted exclusively to members of the opposite sex. This high prevalence of same-sex attractions constitutes an evolutionary puzzle as they appear to impair reproductive success. It has recently been proposed that, one reason behind such high prevalence is a male preference for same-sex attraction in women. The male choice hypothesis predicts that heterosexual women who experience same-sex attractions would be more willing than heterosexual women who do not experience such attractions to have sex with other women. It predicts further that heterosexual women who experience same-sex attractions would be more willing than heterosexual women to engaging in extra-pair copulations with a woman than with a man. Evidence from an online sample of 707 heterosexual women found strong support for both predictions. It was also found that about one in four heterosexual women would consider having sex with another woman in order to satisfy their long-term partner, and about one in two heterosexual women would react negatively to such a suggestion by their partner.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)135-140
Number of pages6
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume124
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Homosexuality
  • Infidelity
  • Male choice hypothesis
  • Mating
  • Same-sex attraction

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