Neuroscience
After sex, are you the kind of person who whines about things, rolls over and promptly goes to sleep, or do you lie awake, whispering sweet nothings into your partner's ear? Whether you're a man or woman, a new study says your answer at least partly depends on your testosterone levels. The research, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, involved 253 young adults giving saliva samples (from which their testosterone levels were measured) and then keeping a sexual activity diary for two weeks, including providing details of the kinds of things they said to their partner after sex, and their views about post-sex chat.
Participants who had higher testosterone levels saw pillow talk after sex as less beneficial and more risky (than people with lower testosterone), and when they did engage in post-coital chat, it was less intentional and tended to be more negative. But this main finding was qualified by the big O. That is, the links between testosterone and pillow talk only applied to people who did not orgasm during sex. Put differently, when people had an orgasm, they all conducted pillow talk like someone with low testosterone. But without an orgasm, high testosterone people were less positive and nurturing in their pillow talk than low testosterone people.
The researchers said their results add to past research that's shown post-coital behaviour is important to relationship satisfaction, and that high testosterone individuals tend to have less satisfying romantic relationships, probably because they tend to be less nurturing by nature. They concluded: "Not only does the current study contribute to researchers' theoretical understanding of sexual communication, privacy boundaries, and biology, but it could also have broader practical implications for romantic relationships."
--Physiology and pillow talk: Relations between testosterone and communication post sex
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Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
The psychophysiology of post-sex pillow talk
Participants who had higher testosterone levels saw pillow talk after sex as less beneficial and more risky (than people with lower testosterone), and when they did engage in post-coital chat, it was less intentional and tended to be more negative. But this main finding was qualified by the big O. That is, the links between testosterone and pillow talk only applied to people who did not orgasm during sex. Put differently, when people had an orgasm, they all conducted pillow talk like someone with low testosterone. But without an orgasm, high testosterone people were less positive and nurturing in their pillow talk than low testosterone people.
The researchers said their results add to past research that's shown post-coital behaviour is important to relationship satisfaction, and that high testosterone individuals tend to have less satisfying romantic relationships, probably because they tend to be less nurturing by nature. They concluded: "Not only does the current study contribute to researchers' theoretical understanding of sexual communication, privacy boundaries, and biology, but it could also have broader practical implications for romantic relationships."
--Physiology and pillow talk: Relations between testosterone and communication post sex
_________________________________
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Our free fortnightly email will keep you up-to-date with all the psychology research we digest: Sign up!
- Testosterone-status Mismatch In A Group Is Linked With Reduced Collective Confidence
Men and women with more testosterone like to be in charge. Indeed, they can find it stressful and uncomfortable when denied the status that they crave. Similarly, people low in testosterone find it uncomfortable to be placed in positions of authority....
- Fetal Exposure To Testosterone Linked With Presence Of Autistic Traits In Childhood
The idea that autism may be the manifestation of an "extreme male brain" has received support from a study showing that higher levels of fetal exposure to testosterone are associated with the later presence of autistic traits in childhood. Bonnie Auyeung...
- Men's Dancing Style Determined In The Womb
If you dance like a deranged spinning top, blame your mother! Apparently, the way men dance is related to how much testosterone they were exposed to in the womb, as indicated by the relative lengths of their index and ring fingers. Previous research has...
- How Messages Are Scent
The idea that humans release chemical signals – pheromones – that affect people around them is controversial. If pheromones do exist, however, two chemicals that might fulfil this role are the testosterone derivative 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND),...
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Testosterone May Affect Competitiveness NO! Really?? I did not know this. from APA online, Psychology in the News for the completely ignorant and uninformed: United Press International - November 30, 2006 AUSTIN, Texas, Nov 30,...