BOSTON -- Absence really could make a man's heart grow fonder, but it doesn't appear to make his sweetheart any more interested in sex with him, a study suggests.
In a survey of people on and around college campuses, researchers found that the more time spent apart after sex, the more eager men were to copulate with their lovers again.Women were generally unaffected by separation, according to the study led by Todd K. Shackelford, an assistant professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University.
It didn't matter how much time had lapsed since the couple last had sex.
Don't take it personally, guys. The researchers propose in a paper presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association that you're unwittingly responding to an urge from way back in human evolution.
Basically, the researchers suggest, the urge that drives a man to want sex after separation is the thought that another man might have gotten there first and beat out his sperm in the race to fertilize his partner's egg. After all, in the view of evolutionary biology, passing on genes to the next generation is what sex is all about.
The notion of "sperm competition" within a female has been well-studied in non-humans, but whether it significantly shapes sexual behavior in people is open to debate.
Shackelford acknowledged the measured effect of time apart on men's attitudes about sex is small.