Recent research suggests that, for most women, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to both women
and men. For men, however, high sex drive is associated with increased attraction to one sex or the other, but not to both,
depending on men's sexual orientation (Lippa, R. A., 2006,
Psychological Science,
17, 46–52). These findings were replicated in a very large BBC data set and were found to hold true in different nations, world
regions, and age groups. Consistent with previous research, lesbians differed from other women in showing the male-typical
pattern, that high sex drive is associated with attraction to one sex but not the other. Bisexual women and men were more
similar to same-sex heterosexuals than to same-sex homosexuals in their pattern of results. The correlation between same-sex
and other-sex attraction was consistently negative for men, was near zero for heterosexual and bisexual women, and negative
for lesbians. Thus, same-sex and other-sex attractions were, in general, more bipolar and mutually exclusive for men than
for women. The current findings add to evidence that sexual orientation is organized differently in women and men and suggest
a biological component to this difference.
Keywords Sexual orientation - Sex drive - Heterosexuality - Bisexuality - Homosexuality - Cross-cultural research