March 2, 2006
by Mimi Ko Cruz

The higher a woman's sex drive, the more she desires men and women. That's what a new study by psychology professor Richard A. Lippa has found.

The survey, published in January in Psychological Science, showed that heterosexual women are 27 times more likely than heterosexual men to express attraction to their own sex.

For most men, a higher sex drive simply intensifies their existing sexual orientation, Lippa said.

"It's the common sense view that heterosexual men with high sex drives are very interested in women, and gay men with high sex drives are super attracted to men," he said. "The unexpected result of this study is that it suggests that women are more intrinsically bisexual. Men tend to be either-or [heterosexual or gay], but women have more shades of gray."

Lippa, author of the 2005 book "Gender, Nature and Nurture" and a renowned gender expert, also served as a research consultant for a British Broadcasting Corp. Internet survey on the same subject. The researcher said new, unpublished data from the BBC survey of more than 200,000 people shows "there probably is a biological something going on here."

Results of his Psychological Science study, in which Lippa polled more than 3,600 people (mostly California college students), were replicated across many different cultures and countries, including Western Europe, Latin America, Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore for the BBC survey.

"These findings suggest that sexual orientation is fundamentally different in men and women," Lippa said. "It almost seems that in most women, there is a latent bisexuality, and that high sex drive energizes it."

According to Lippa, the data from the BBC and his study show that results do not vary across cultures or age groups. "Based on these and other data, I'm pretty convinced that you can easily replicate my findings anywhere," he said. "They are quite robust."

Differences in men and women's sexual orientation may result from cultural and environmental factors, Lippa believes, such as society's greater tolerance for same-sex attraction and affection in women than men.

The study "helps us understand a little bit about human nature and sex differences," said Lippa. "It shows that in some fundamental ways, sexuality differs in men and women."

Lippa will serve as a co-editor of a special edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior, which will be devoted to research findings based on the BBC survey. Three articles on the research will be included in the edition.

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