RESEARCHERS in the US have found that the motivation for having sex is largely the same for men and women, seemingly shattering the myth that the genders have different reasons for racing to the bedroom.
The researchers compiled a list of 237 reasons given by US college students for getting frisky - and the top reasons for men and women were more to do with lust than a deep love connection.
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The findings would apparently contradict the assumption by some that it is only men who are motivated by lust, whereas women only want sex as an expression of a deep emotional feeling.
Seven of the top 10 reasons for men revolve around the pleasure of the act. The top response was "I was attracted to the person", while "It feels good", "It's fun" and "I wanted to experience pleasure" were also in the top four.
For women, the top response was the same: "I was attracted to the person". Six of the remaining nine answers in the top 10 were also centred on the women feeling pleasure from the act.
Three of the top 10 reasons for men and women involved providing pleasure to the partner. For women, those reasons rated slightly higher on the leaderboard.
The study was compiled - and paid for - by researchers at the University of Texas over five years and published in the August edition of the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author, told the Associated Press.
"That's not what I came up with in my findings. None of the gender differences are all that great.
"Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner."
Another expert who was not involved in the study said its findings backed up other research suggesting the often-assumed sexual differences between men and women were only factors for those with sexual problems.
Prof Meston did concede, however, that the study's focus on university students - whose "hormones run rampant" - might have affected the findings.
She said more differences may emerge as people grow older.
The bottom five reasons given by men and women were surprisingly vindictive, ranging from "I wanted to punish myself" or "I wanted to end my relationship" to "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease".
Benefits also figured in the bottom rungs of the list. "I wanted to get a job" was fifth from bottom for men, while "The person offered to give me drugs for doing it" was the very lowest ranked.
"I wanted to get a job" and "I wanted a raise" were among the bottom reasons given by women.
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