David Buss

Why Women Have Sex

Why Women Have Sex

Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)

Summary

Why do women have sex? Is it purely for pleasure or the desire to reproduce?

In their ground-breaking book, clinical psychologist Cindy Meston and evolutionary psychologist David Buss investigate the underlying sexual desires of women and identify 237 distinct motivations for sex. Drawing on more than a thousand intensive interviews conducted solely for the book, as well as their pioneering research on physiological response and evolutionary emotions, Meston and Buss give us a remarkably complex and nuanced portrait of female sexuality.

They explore the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a man's infidelity (protection), as a ploy to boost self-confidence (status), as a barter for gifts (resource acquisition), or even as a cure for a headache (medication).

Why Women Have Sex explores the deep-seated psychology and biology of female sexuality, and promises to inform every woman's - and her partner's - awareness of her relationship to sex and her own sexuality.