Sex on the First Date Does Not Determine Whether a Man Will Call Again

Most of us fear that assumption that if you have sex on the first date, then the man won’t call you back. Luckily, Sociological Images is here to puncture that balloon.

According to Philip N. Cohen, sociology professor at the University of Maryland, women might get this impression if they assume that early sex is what determines their changes of a callback. However, Cohen points out something else that might underpin this relationship — most relationships don’t make it to later dates, which is when guys are most likely to call a woman back, because get this: he knows her well enough to really like her.

Does this sound confusing? Allow Cohen to explain it himself (the link also has a handy graph):

By this interpretation, the decision about when to have sex is arbitrary and doesn’t affect anything. All that matters is how much the couple like and are attracted to each other, which determines how many dates they have, and whether the guy calls back. Every couple has a first date, but only a few make it to the seventh date. It appears that the first-date-sex couples usually don’t last because people don’t know each other very well on first dates and they have a high rate of failure regardless of sex. The seventh-date-sex couples, on the other hand, usually like each other more and they’re very likely to have more dates. And: there are many more first-date couples than seventh-date couples.

While Cohen says he doesn’t know if this alternative explanation is in fact true, he says that it is just as, if not more plausible than assuming that women “make men disrespect by having sex right away,” thus showing that “feminism is really ruining society.” Cohen’s point also raises further questions about this women inviting disrespect by putting out early notion that may or may not help with research, but are important nonetheless. Such as: Why is it the guy who has to determine whether a first date becomes a second, etc.? And why would a dude who judges women in this way be worth wringing one’s hands over, ever?