1 Department of Psychology, Florida State University.
2 Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Psychol Sci. 2017 May;28(5):587-598. doi: 10.1177/0956797617691361. Epub 2017 Mar 16.
Sex presumably facilitates pair bonding, but how do partners remain pair-bonded between sexual acts? Evolutionary perspectives suggest that sexual afterglow serves this purpose. We explored how long sexual satisfaction would remain elevated following sex and predicted that stronger sexual afterglow would characterize more satisfying partnerships. We pooled the data from two independent, longitudinal studies of newlywed couples to examine these issues. Spouses reported their daily sexual activity and sexual satisfaction for 14 days and their marital satisfaction at baseline and 4 or 6 months later. Results demonstrated that sexual satisfaction remained elevated approximately 48 hr after sex, and spouses experiencing a stronger afterglow reported higher levels of marital satisfaction both at baseline and over time. We interpret these findings as evidence that sexual afterglow is a proximal cognitive mechanism through which sex promotes pair bonding.
性可能有助于伴侣关系的建立，但在性行为之后，伴侣如何保持伴侣关系呢？进化的观点表明，性后效可以起到这个作用。我们探讨了性行为后性满足感会持续多久，并预测更强的性后效会使伴侣关系更令人满意。我们汇集了两项关于新婚夫妇的独立纵向研究的数据，以研究这些问题。配偶报告了他们 14 天内的日常性活动和性满足感，以及他们在基线时和 4 或 6 个月后的婚姻满意度。结果表明，性行为后大约 48 小时，性满足感仍然升高，并且经历更强性后效的配偶在基线和随着时间的推移报告了更高的婚姻满意度。我们将这些发现解释为性后效是一种近端认知机制，通过这种机制，性促进了伴侣关系的建立。
