kissing old couple
Jon
Nazca/Reuters

By
1996, scientists had only bothered to think of eight reasons
why people choose to have sex.

Psychologists Cindy Messon and David Buss didn’t think that was
very realistic.

So they gathered 444 people
between 17 and 52 years old and asked them to list as many
reasons they could think of why they or people they knew had
chosen to have sex.

Then Messon and Buss went through the 715 responses,
eliminating duplicates and condensing similar answers. The result
was a 237-item list (technically, 238 counting space to write in
other responses), which they named the
YSEX survey and published in 2007.

Messon and Buss tested the YSEX survey first on college students.
Some of the most common reasons they gave for having sex
included:

  • I was attracted to the
    person
  • It feels good
  • I wanted to experience the
    physical pleasure
  • I wanted to show my affection
    the person
  • I was sexually aroused and
    wanted the release

Among the rarest reasons for why these college students were
having sex?

  • I wanted to give someone else
    a sexually transmitted disease
  • The person offered to give me
    drugs for doing it
  • I wanted a raise
  • I wanted to breakup my
    relationship
  • It was an initiation rite to
    a club or organization

But it’s still being used today to help researchers understand
sexual dynamics based on factors like sexual
orientation, age, and
level of
commitment.

And since we know you’re wondering,
here’s the full list, good, bad, and ugly.

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