Sex out of duty: study finds little difference between men and women

Having sex you don't really want, out of fear of the consequences of saying no – researchers call this “duty sex”. A team led by F. Sid Dougan of the University of Texas at Austin, with Kate B. Metcalfe and Cindy M. Meston, examined who reports it most. The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology; PsyPost reported on it on 28 October. The researchers surveyed 252 sexually active students aged 18 to 24 online (176 women, 76 men) who were dating at least one partner; about three quarters were in committed relationships.

Overall, duty sex was rare, and women and men did not differ statistically. Those who rated the likelihood of their partner cheating higher reported it more often, in both sexes. The same applied to people who saw themselves as less desirable than their partner – this link was significant among women on their own but not among men, though a direct comparison found no meaningful difference. A stronger tendency towards anxiety and emotional insecurity (neuroticism) was also associated with slightly more duty sex. Relationship length made no difference.

The study comes from evolutionary psychology, which explains behaviour in terms of mate choice and reproduction. “Natural selection works in the currency of reproductive success, not happiness or ethical conduct,” says Dougan. The limitations are clear: it is a one-time survey that cannot establish cause and effect; only 76 men took part, all respondents were young students, and emotional manipulation or abuse was not measured. The report gives no details on funding. The team had published preliminary results with a smaller sample (121 people) as a conference abstract in 2025 – there, men still reported less duty sex than women.