'I Shouldn’t Have Done That' 35% Of Women Think After A One-Night Stand, Study Reveals

With one-night stand becoming increasingly popular and common in many countries, the psychology of men and women before and after actually doing it was studied by researchers in the USA and Norway. The American researchers conducted a survey on people especially young folks and found out that women regret the decision.

Norway being a more sexually liberal nation, researchers from Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) and the University of Texas, Austin, tried to find out whether or not there is any difference in the psychology of young men and women. Surprisingly, they did not find one.

A Morning with Regret

The psychological status of 263 sexually active students in the age group of 19 to 37 years, who had one or more one-night stands, was studied and it was found that 35 percent of women felt regretful the morning after, while only 20 percent of men regretted the experience.

In addition, 70 percent of women were unhappy after the experience as compared to 50 percent men who felt unhappy after such casual sex encounters. The study results were published in the Evolutionary Psychology journal, PsychCentral reported.

Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), who was also the lead researcher in the study, said that, "Women regret that they agreed to a one-night stand more often than men. Men regret passing up the chance more than women."

It was also found that, after turning down the offer of casual sex, 80 percent of women were happy to have declined while 57 percent men were unhappy that they passed an opportunity of meaningless sex.

Why Is It So?

Researchers suggest that the difference in reactions of men and women is attributed to many factors. First, women psychology is less likely to undertake a task, which they deem risky. Furthermore, women worry more and they also have to face the possible risk of getting pregnant and contracting STDs from such sexual encounters. Above all, women are worried about creating a bad reputation of themselves, Sowetan Live reported.

Experts say that evolutionary psychology may also be a main factor, which defines such remarkable differences in male and female sexual psychology. Dr. Buss, a chief contributor in the study, said, "Women and men differ fundamentally in their sexual psychology. A key limitation on men's reproductive success, historically, has been sexual access to fertile women. These evolutionary selection pressures have created a male sexual mind that is attentive to sexual opportunities."

Professor Kennear further explained this by saying, "So for men, it's a case of quantity not quality so he can improve his reproductive success by having as many fertile mates as possible."

Whatever may be the reason, the study shed light on a different and often undermined aspect of one-night stands.