A new study has found that it is not your faith that determines whether you feel regret after a one-night stand, it is your gender.

Researchers had investigated whether faith may play a role in regretting an encounter, but found both religious and non-religious individuals both regretted having casual sex and missing an opportunity at about the same degree.

However, it was discovered that, even among different cultures, women were found to feel more afflicted about their most recent encounter than men - which is suggested to be a result of evolution.

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A new study has found that it is not your faith that determines whether you feel regret after a one-night stand, it is your gender. Researchers have found that even among different cultures, women were found to feel more afflicted about their most recent encounter than men

THE HIGH COSTS OF ONE-NIGHT STANDS The cost of casual sex that can result in children differs markedly for women and for men. Our foremothers would sometimes have to pay a high cost for unrestricted sex such as birth breastfeeding and the possibility that their partner would not be committed – this greatly reduced the offspring's survival. For our forefathers, there were few costs of having casual sex, since it did not entail any investment on their end. Men were less likely to pass up opportunities for sex, as it was a way for them to increase their reproductive fitness by impregnating many women – this allowed them to pass on a larger portion of their genes to the next generation. All of which then means that we are more likely to be descendants of men who did not pass up the chance. Advertisement

The study was conducted by a team at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, which explored cultural differences between Norwegians and Americans.

Researchers noted that Norwegians tend to be more sexually liberal than Americans.

And Americans 'are clearly more religious than Norwegians'.

The team had found that both regretted casual sex and missing an opportunity at about the same degree.

'We find only small differences between the two nations when it comes to sexual regret,' said Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair at NTNU - the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Psychology.

However, what the team did find while conducting this study is that gender plays a major role in how a person feels following a one-night stand.

It was discovered that women regret their most recent one-night stand much more than men.

And men had reported regretting a missed opportunity much more than women do – barely any women regretting passing up casual sex.

The team noted that the gender difference is a driving factor, regardless of how religious or sexually liberal people consider themselves to be.

'The fact that we find this gender difference in both Norway and the United States suggest there is more to the gender difference in sexual behavior than cultural norms and gender roles,' Joy Wyckoff from the University of Texas at Austin said, who also worked on the study.

During the study, the team recruited 925 Norwegian students and 524 American students to complete a questionnaire.

The team had also looked at whether faith may have also play a role in these feels, but found both religious and non-religious individuals both regretted casual sex and missing an opportunity at about the same degree

A questionnaire was administered to participants, which asked about their most recent one-night stand.

The survey included questions like ‘how do you feel about your actions/decisions?’

They were also asked if they have had casual sex with someone and if they had passed up an opportunity to have casual sex with someone.

F10 MOST COMMON POST-COITAL FEELINGS Participants from Brazil, the US, Canada, and Norway - all under 30 - were asked if they had suffered from any negative emotions in the early stages of a relationship. The most common feelings were: - The need to be comforted - Feeling of worthlessness - Tearfulness - Feeling of helplessness - Sadness - Feeling rejected - Loneliness - Insecurity - Fear - Mental confusion Advertisement

The volunteers were then asked whether or not the person deemed themselves religious and if yes, how important they believed it was to follow their religious doctrines – this is where the two countries differed significantly.

'Religiosity was not consistently associated with either regret for having had casual sex or regret for passing up casual sex,' the team shared in the study published in Personality and Individual Differences.

'The associations were small and variable across the four groups (men/women, Norway/US).'

'Although students high in religiosity reported more restricted attitudes toward casual sex.'

On average, Americans find it far more important to live by the precepts of their faith.

However, most Norwegians were found to have more sexually liberal attitudes, and, on average, have more casual sex than Americans.

'Although the differences between the cultures may be small from an anthropological perspective, the differences we have measured are relevant to sexual regret,' said Kennair.

However, national differences in religiosity or sexual liberalism are small compared to the gender differences related to men's and women's contrasting levels of regret.

'But refraining from having casual sex does not mean you do not want to have it. On the contrary, although 'Americans have less casual sex, they fantasize more than Norwegians do about having sex with people they meet,' Bendixen said.

The team then contemplated why gender would completely overshadow religion when it came to regret, which led them into the discussion of whether culture or biology dominates our behavior.

Our foremothers would sometimes have to pay a high cost for unrestricted sex such as birth breastfeeding and the possibility that their partner would not be committed – this greatly reduced the offspring's survival. Which is why more women may regret having casual sex

'Nature versus nurture is a false dichotomy,' Asao points out, 'Sexual regret is the result of the complex interaction between reproductive biology and cultural moral standards.'

'Sexual regret involves counterfactual thinking and emotions, and it is rooted in the human mind just like our sexual psychology,' says Kennair.

The cost of casual sex that can result in children differs markedly for women and for men.

Our foremothers would sometimes have to pay a high cost for unrestricted sex such as birth breastfeeding and the possibility that their partner would not be committed – this greatly reduced the offspring's survival.

'When this happens over hundreds of generations, we get a selection of women who are less likely to have casual sex and who experience this as less positive when it happens,' Mons Bendixen, an associate professor and co-author of the study, said.

'Women did not only face greater costs from poor casual sex choices, but also received fewer benefits from increased casual sex because women's reproductive success is limited by reproductive biology, whereas men's success is limited by access to fertile women,' said Kelly Asao, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, who collaborated with the Norwegian researchers.

For our forefathers, there were few costs of having casual sex, since it did not entail any investment on their end.

Men were less likely to pass up opportunities for sex, as it was a way for them to increase their reproductive fitness by impregnating many women – this allowed them to pass on a larger portion of their genes to the next generation.

All of which then means that we are more likely to be descendants of men who did not pass up the chance.

The researchers believe that the sexual psychology of women and men has become relatively differentiated through this selection process, resulting in clear gender-specific patterns of thinking and feeling after individuals choose either to have casual sex or to pass up the opportunity.

These attitudes persist today despite easy access to contraceptives and good social support schemes for mothers without partners, and despite cultural conditions such as religiosity and sexual liberalism.