"It's an age-old story. A heterosexual couple is having struggles regarding their intimate lives. Quite often, a man might complain that the relationship is too low on the sex meter. On the other side of the table, the woman may well be complaining that the relationship is too low on the love meter. In multiple strands of research, sex differences emerge when it comes to the psychology of sex and love."
"Women's reproductive systems are complex and intensive. To successfully reproduce on one occasion, a woman must invest an enormous amount of time and energy (with pregnancy only being a slice of it) to succeed. Whereas for men, one sex act alone is sufficient for successful reproduction. This asymmetry in parental investment (see Trivers, 1972) helps to understand asymmetries between the sexes in relationships."
Evolutionary differences in reproductive biology shape distinct relationship psychologies for men and women. Women's reproductive processes demand substantial time and energy, creating higher parental investment per mating, whereas men can achieve reproduction with a single sexual act. That asymmetry favors psychological differences in mating strategies: women tend to link love and sexual intimacy more closely, while men are comparatively less likely to conflate sex with love. Measures of sociosexuality consistently find men more open to sex outside committed relationships, reflecting a weaker love-sex connection. Recognizing evolutionary roots can clarify common relationship conflicts over love versus sex.
Read at Psychology Today
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