New York : The truth is finally out. According to new research, women’s sexuality is more flexible and adaptive than men’s and romantic opportunities appear to influence women’s sexual identities more than men, reports IANS.
“Women have a greater probability than men of being attracted to both men and women which gives them greater flexibility in partner choice,” said Elizabeth Aura McClintock, assistant professor of sociology at the Indiana-based University of Notre Dame.
Having flexible sexual attractions may grant greater importance to contextual and experiential factors when it comes to sexual identity, she added.
For her study, McClintock tracked 5,018 women and 4,191 men as they moved from adolescence to young adulthood.
Confirming previous research, McClintock found that women were more likely than men to report bisexuality while men were more likely to report being either “100 percent heterosexual” or “100 percent homosexual.” She also found that women were three times more likely than men to change their sexual identities.
“Men are less often attracted to both sexes. Men’s sexuality is, in this sense, less flexible. If a man is only attracted to one sex, romantic opportunity would little alter his sexual identity,” she emphasised.
The results showed that women with more education and women who were more physically attractive had higher probabilities of identifying as “100 percent heterosexual” than other women.
