Why people have casual sex and how they feel about it afterwards - what's to know, right? One-night stands, single encounters and friends with benefits have always been and will be.
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Well, not so fast perhaps.
A study undertaken at Queensland's James Cook University has found satisfaction with sexual encounters without romance, commitment, emotional attachment or even familiarity, depends on the motivation behind it.
The parties involved will, of course, nearly always bring different perspectives to the bedroom, says research psychologist Ryan Anderson.
Yet while it's generally thought women experience poorer psychological outcomes following informal hook-ups, some studies indicate no significant gender differences.
"This prompted us to investigate what motivates people to have casual sex, what emotional outcomes follow casual sex and whether there are gender differences among these variables," Dr Anderson said
Just over 700 people completed a 44-item online survey during the study - and the results were varied.
Dr Anderson says he didn't find a motivation that predicted positive emotional outcomes from casual encounters.
"However the motivation to achieve positive emotions was found to predict neutral emotional outcomes.
"This may suggest that having sex for personal gratification, enjoyment or fun can lead to an unchanged mood and feelings remaining the same."
The flip side is that people who engage in sex to reduce negative emotions are likely to experience negative emotional outcomes.
Dr Anderson says it's unclear whether this is because casual sex enhances pre-existing negative emotions or just isn't an effective method for managing them.
In other words, casual hook-ups don't seem to offer any guarantee people will feel better about themselves and for some at least they are probably going to do more harm than good. Why, though, is uncertain.
Dr Anderson says women reported significantly more negative emotional outcomes than men, including loneliness, unhappiness, rejection, regret, general negative feelings and a perception of negative judgment from others.
Conversely, men reported greater sexual satisfaction, happiness, self-confidence, contentment and mood improvement.
"For women, what stood out was concern about being negatively judged by others, which supports there being a sexual double standard from a social psychological perspective," he said.
The research appears to have produced one clear practical message.
"When engaging in anything from a kiss to coital intercourse outside of a committed relationship, ensure your underlying motivation is not to regulate negative emotions," Dr Anderson said.
"For most people, and especially women, a random hook-up is not going to stop you feeling sad and may make you feel worse."
Australian Associated Press
