A University of Auckland study has found make up sex isn't as good or as common as one would hope.
While it is the theme of many songs and movies, the joint study with Florida State University researchers found "make up sex" is less common and less exciting than popular culture would have people believe.
More than 100 newlywed heterosexual couples in America were surveyed, then followed up on six months later to detect any changes.
In the study, each partner individually filled in a questionnaire to rate their sexual satisfaction in general and then again each of the following 14 days.
They were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with sexual relations, overall marital satisfaction and whether there had been conflict, meaning one person did something the other didn't like, with their partner on that day.
The survey left each participant to determine what sex meant to them.
In total, the researchers analysed 2539 daily surveys with couples reporting they had sex on 864 days, conflict on 494 days and sex co-occurring with conflict on 140 days.
The study found that when conflict was felt by one partner, sex was less likely to occur in the following two days.
However, the research also found that while sex partially reduced the negative effect of conflict on marital satisfaction, it didn’t necessarily last through to the following day and did not appear to effect couples’ overall marital satisfaction when researchers questioned participants six months later.
Auckland University psychology professor Jessica Maxell said the study shows the fallibility of "cultural myths".
“When couples are wondering whether they should engage in sex after conflict, I think they should be mindful that such sex may have short-term benefits by buffering reduced marital satisfaction on days of conflict, but might not be as satisfying as cultural myths would have us believe, or have long-term benefits."
"An interesting point is that for all of our findings, we saw little differences between how men and women responded to the survey questions," Dr Maxwell added.
SHARE ME