Sex study explores 'bad' orgasms

Orgasms don't always mean a sexual encounter is positive, find psychologists.

  • A new study finds that reaching an orgasm doesn't always indicate the sexual encounter was pleasurable.
  • A variety of reasons were reported by participants for "bad" orgasms.
  • Communication is key to improving sexual experiences, maintain the scientists.
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What internet searches reveal about human sexuality

Polls never reveal who we really are. Google does.

Photo by Tim de Waele/Corbis via Getty Images
  • In Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz discusses how Pornhub and Google data provide a window into human sexuality.
  • Large, anonymized data sets are more reliable indicators than polling or other traditional methods.
  • More people report having sex than actually having sex, Stephens-Davidowitz reports.
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Psychological 'walls' harm us over time — instead of protect us

Appraising a ubiquitous feature among modern folk.

Photo credit: Andrew Neel on Unsplash
  • In uncertain social situations, we tend to defend ourselves by putting a psychological "wall" up.
  • For those who are very cautious, people who engage with them may feel an outright "dismissal."
  • Cultivating trust is more important than ever in overcoming many peoples' walls to build relationships with them.
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Study: Sending emojis is linked to scoring more dates, sex

Emojis might contain more emotional information than meets the eye.

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  • A new study shows that people who frequently used emojis in text messages with potential dates engaged in more sexual activity and had more contact with those dates.
  • However, the study only shows an association; it didn't establish causality.
  • The authors suggest that emojis might help to convey nuanced emotional information that's lacking in strictly text-based messaging.
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There may be very easy way to predict the sex of sperm

A team of Japanese researchers comes across a remarkably simple trick.

Image source: Shidlovski / Shutterstock / Big Think
  • On average, ejaculate holds about a 50/50 mix of X and Y sperm.
  • In some cultures and countries, there are strong historical and contemporary preferences for males over females.
  • There are genes unique to X sperm that can be manipulated to make them swim more slowly than Y sperm.
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