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Women Pretending Orgasm

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Faking orgasm; Simulating orgasm

Definition

Women acting as if they have experienced an orgasm when they have not, through vocalizations, breathing, body movements, muscular contractions, and/or verbal confirmation during the act.

Introduction

A substantial number of women (75–90%) do not consistently experience orgasm during sexual activity, and a considerable minority (5–10%) do not experience orgasm at all. Furthermore, when women do experience orgasm, it is typically in the context of masturbation or oral sex rather than penetrative sex (Brewer and Hendrie 2011). Despite the relatively low incidence of female orgasm during sexual intercourse, women frequently simulate orgasm through vocalizations, breathing, and body movement. Indeed, a large proportion of women vocalize even when they are admit to having pretended a copulatory orgasm at least once in their lifetime (e.g., Kaighobadi et al. 2012; Séguin et al. 2015; Muehlenhard and Shippee 2010), and women who pretend to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Michigan, MI, USA

    Yael Sela

  2. School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK

    Gayle Brewer

Authors
  1. Yael Sela
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  2. Gayle Brewer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yael Sela .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Westfield State University, Westfield, MA, USA

    Joseph A Camilleri

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Sela, Y., Brewer, G. (2018). Women Pretending Orgasm. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2006-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2006-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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