Ain’t the web wonderful? From Popsci.com:
There’s also evidence, evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup, Jr., says, that women may actually go through semen withdrawal. In an unpublished study he conducted a few years ago, women in committed relationships who were having unprotected sex and were exposed to semen were “far more devastated and adversely affected [after a breakup] than those that were using condoms.”He also found a risk of a rebound effect, where women who were not using condoms had sex with a new partner after a breakup within a couple of weeks versus several months for those who had used condoms. “I don’t think the evidence is conclusive, but it’s certainly very suggestive that it’s a response, in effect, to semen withdrawal,” Gallup says.
You get more crazy shit from evolutionary psychologists than even from politicians.
Posted by: Liberati on May 17, 2011 10:25 AMThere's a good reason that his "study" wasn't published. Based on the outline we have here, rather than some hitherto-unheard-of semen addiction, it seems more likely to me that women who risk pregnancy and/or STDs in their sexual relations might be more emotionally attached than prudent, protected women. They might also be pregnant, which would increase the trauma of a breakup. Age and SES data are relevant, as are personality factors.
As a group, we could come up with a hundred more plausible relationships. I'd suggest a follow-up study of gay relationships to determine whether men are susceptible to semen addiction.
And, yes, Liberati, "evolutionary psychologists" are nutty and do a lot of imagining based on preconceived notions and call it research.
Posted by: JoyfulA on May 17, 2011 6:46 PM