Do women pretend orgasm to retain a mate

Abstract

The current study tested the hypothesis that women pretend orgasmaspartof a broader strategyofmate retention.We obtained self-report data from 453 heterosexual women (M age, 21.8 years) in a long-term relationship (M length, 32.8 months) drawn from universities and surrounding communities in the southeastern United States. The results indicated that (1) women whoperceived higher riskofpartner infidelityweremore likely to report pretending orgasm, (2) women who reported greater likelihood of pretending orgasm also reported performing more mate retention behaviors, and (3) women's perceptions of partner infidelity risk mediated the relationship between pretending orgasm and the performance of cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors,suchas IntersexualNegative Inducements(''Flirtedwith someone in front ofmypartner'') and IntrasexualNegative Inducements (''Yelled at awomanwholooked atmy partner''). Thus, pretending orgasm may be part of a broader strategy of mate retention performed by women who perceive higher risk of partner infidelity. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.