Men And Sex: What Do They Really Think?

Men may have a tendency to misjudge a woman's sexual intent, based on both individual or situational factors, such as alcohol intoxication. Now, new findings published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences show that their attachment style--otherwise known as a personality trait that reflects romantic relationship tendencies--may influence his perceptions of whether a woman is sexually interested.

During this recent study, researchers asked 500 men to imagine a scenario in which an attractive woman at a nightclub catches their gaze and a woman notices she is being stared at and smiles back. Next, participants were asked to gauge the level of interest the woman showed in the scenario--ranging from "not at all interested" to "extremely interested."

Findings revealed that men on the higher end of the attachment anxiety spectrum were more likely to imagine that the woman staring at them was interested in them sexually (attachment anxiety.); these individuals crave love and reassurance for fear of rejection. On the other hand, men who felt women were not interested were more likely to be attachment avoidant--trusting and relying solely on others and fearing intimacy.

"If you view yourself as being flirtatious, that biases you to seeing others as behaving similarly," lead study author Joshua Hart, associate professor of psychology and the lead author of the study, said in a news release.

Conversely, men higher in attachment avoidance felt the opposite.

"Their lower interest in intimacy led them to be less interested in the fictional woman, thus seeing themselves as being less flirty, and in turn, imagining the woman as less sexually interested in them," Hart said.

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