Publication Date
2024
Description
Experiencing a romantic breakup is often a complicated and emotional experience, and in many cases, this emotional ambivalence leads to people having “breakup sex” with their ex-partners. To better understand this complicated relationship stage, we sampled 987 single adults to understand how individual differences in sociosexuality and fear of being single predict one's desire to have breakup sex and previous breakup sex experience. We observed that both men and women who reported more unrestricted sociosexual orientations reported greater desire for breakup sex. However, women—but not men—who reported greater fear of being single reported a greater desire for breakup sex. Lastly, those who reported a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation were more likely to have had breakup sex in the past. Results suggest that both men's and women's desire for casual sex impacts engagement in breakup sex and that women's desire is also motivated by their fear of being single.
Journal
Personality and Individual differences
Volume
216
Second Department
Psychology
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2023.112420
Recommended Citation
Moran, James B.; Burch, Rebecca L.; Wade, T. Joel; and Murray, Damian R.. "If you leave, don't leave now: The role of gender, sociosexuality, and fear of being single on desire to engage in breakup sex." (2024) .