Sexy women beware – your good looks could make a man ditch safe sex practices. A recent study says the more attractive a woman is, the less likely a man is to want to use a condom. In a small survey of 51 heterosexual men, the participants were asked to rate 20 photographs of women on a scale from 0 to 100. They were also asked to rate their desire to have sex with the women and the likelihood to use a condom with each on the same 0 to 100 scale. The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Bristol, also took STIs into account and asked participants if they thought the women had an STI (because you can totally tell by looking at someone). The whole premise of lining up photos of women and having men contemplate sex with them is kinda weird, but it’s all in the name of science… right?
Outside of not wanting to use a condom with an attractive woman, the study revealed other tidbits of interesting information. For instance, if the men thought a high number of other men like themselves would be willing to have unprotected sex with a woman, then they thought she was more likely to have an STI. But, despite thinking her chances of having an STI were high, it did not affect their willingness to forgo a condom.
First of all, just because a guy thinks a lot of men want to have sex with a woman doesn’t mean she’s having sex with “a lot” of men. Even if she was having sex with multiple men, it could still be protected sex. And, if a man thought a woman had an STI, why the heck would he STILL want to have unprotected sex with her? I guess some guys are willing to risk it all to roll in the sheets with a sexy woman. Researchers did note that the sample size was small and comprised of mainly white men ages 19-61. This raises a few questions:
- Why was the sample size so small?
- Why weren’t the participants more diverse?
- What was the demographics of the women used?
- Where the hell did they find these creepy ass men?
- Why did the study not include the effects of alcohol and discuss pressure tactics used by men?
Questions aside, there seems to be a little truth to this survey — just think about the number of social media “jokes” with pictures of women and subsequent comments from men about wanting to “go in raw” to have sex. And, an earlier study conducted with women revealed they would also be willing to relax their safe-sex standards for a hot guy.
I suppose there is a scientific explanation about a man’s built-in desire to procreate with an attractive person and blah blah blah but everyone doesn’t want to procreate and there are serious sexually transmitted diseases in the world. Yes, the pressure to not use a condom can be too real, but if you don’t know you AND your partner’s status for sure, or you don’t use birth control and want to avoid pregnancy, then you have to practice safe sex. End of story.
Letting logic slip because of a pretty (or handsome) face could have serious consequences.
Original by Tai Gooden