Pillow Talk and Cognitive Decision-making Processes: Exploring the Influence of Orgasm and Alcohol on Communication after Sexual Activity

Abstract

This study explores individuals' postcoital disclosures by investigating the role of orgasm and alcohol on communication after sexual activity over a two-week period. Assessments of the risks and benefits of disclosing were expected to influence the associations among orgasm, alcohol, and postcoital communication. The results revealed that individuals who orgasmed perceived greater benefits to disclosing to their partners after sexual activity. They also disclosed more positively valenced information and information of greater magnitude compared to those who did not orgasm, although risk–benefit assessments did not mediate this relationship. Additionally, the more alcohol individuals consumed, the fewer benefits they assessed to disclosing, the less deep and positively valenced their disclosures were, and the more unintentional they were in their disclosures. Similarly, the relationship between alcohol and the dimensions of disclosure was not mediated by risk–benefit assessments. Finally, individuals who consumed more alcohol and did not orgasm disclosed less positively valenced information than individuals who consumed less alcohol and did not orgasm across occasions. The implications of these findings for couples' communication and future research on the postcoital time interval are discussed.

Keywords:

• Postcoital Communication
• Pillow Talk
• Orgasm
• Alcohol
• Oxytocin
• Disclosure

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Walid Afifi and Linda Putnam for their assistance at different phases of this research project, which was part of the first author's doctoral dissertation as directed by the second author.