Women suffer one-night stand blues
A one-night stand leaves men feeling content but women feeling ‘used’, according to findings from Durham University.
Research has suggested that women experience negative feelings after one-night stands, and ‘are not well adapted to fleeting sexual encounters’.
Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University found that after a one-night stand, 80% of men had overall positive feelings about the experience, compared to 54% of women. Men were more likely than women to want their friends to hear about it, and reported greater sexual satisfaction and contentment following the event, as well as a greater sense of well-being and confidence about themselves.
By contrast, women reported regret at having been ‘used’, were more likely to feel that they had let themselves down, and were worried about the potential damage to their reputation if other people found out. Women also found the experience less sexually satisfying.
Professor Campbell commented: "In evolutionary terms women bear the brunt of parental care and it has been generally thought that it was to their advantage to choose their mate carefully and remain faithful to make sure that their mate had no reason to believe he was raising another man's child.
“But recently biologists have suggested that females could benefit from mating with many men-it would increase the genetic diversity of their children and, if a high quality man would not stay with them forever, they might at least get his excellent genes for their child."
Commenting on the results of the findings, Professor Campbell said:
“What the women seemed to object to was not the briefness of the encounter but the fact that the man did not seem to appreciate her. The women thought this lack of gratitude implied that she did this with anybody.”
