Women Fake Orgasms for ... Pleasure

Thanks to Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, even guys know that women fake the big O—but who knew they did it for pleasure? A study published in the Journal of Sexual Archives says women will fake orgasm not just for the relationship or their own insecurity, but to feel sexually excited, the Huffington Post reports. The US study looked at 481 sexually active, straight women with an average age of 20 who weren't in a committed relationship, and asked why they faked it. Their top four answers:

• Altruistic deceit (making the guy feel better)
• Fear and insecurity (avoiding bad feelings about the experience)
• Elevated arousal (turning herself on)
• Sexual adjournment (getting sex over with)

The first two answers fit traditional thinking about a faked orgasm—that it's for the man, or a woman's emotional well-being—but the third shows a new self-determination by women in bed, says study co-author Erin Cooper. One caveat: The study looked at young, single women, and earlier studies have found this group can't achieve orgasm as easily as women in serious relationships, Time notes. Still, an earlier study showed that 80% of women admitted to having faked the big O, reports NBC News. (Another attention-grabbing sex study: Nearly half of men report "sexual coercion.")