For those who think this means “horny guys wants sex,” consider for a moment that maybe scientists aren’t as worthless as you think. There’s quite a body of research on what factors influence men and women’s interest in short-term mating opportunities (e.g., one night stands) as opposed to committed, long-term relationships.

Believe it or not, not all men in all situations seek a quick bang. Often, they’d like an actual long-term companion and invest a LOT of time and resources into pursuing that to the exclusion of short-term partners.

What this study says is that regardless of personality characteristics, relationship status, etc., sexual arousal sort of pushes everything else to the side, and even men who tend to be committed and uninterested in a one night stand shift their strategies/interest to short-term mating.

Might you have predicted this? Probably. Were there reason to doubt it? Actually, yes. There were. Men aren’t just straight up f%^#ing machines. They actually have other motivations. But this study clarified the matter.

And that’s what science is - testing hypotheses, even those everyone thinks are obvious, so that evidence actually exists to support ideas.

This is science. That’s how it works.