“Rather than Ruin the Fun:” Elaborating on Faking Orgasms as Goal-Oriented Deceptive Communication

Abstract

This study investigates the goal-oriented nature of deceptive communication enacted through faking orgasms for people in diverse relationships that they perceived as less common or less accepted than more normative relationships (n = 501) using Multiple Goals Theory as a lens. Findings revealed that just over half the sample (52.4%) reported having faked an orgasm at some point in their lives, and approximately one third (32.3%) of the sample reported having faked an orgasm with their current partner. Results from qualitative analyses reveal that instrumental, identity, and personal goals characterized the reported motivations for faking orgasms, which primarily included faking an orgasm to end the activity or to benefit the partner. Implications for sexuality educators and future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Faking orgasms
• deceptive communication
• multiple goals theory
• relational diversity

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 This research was approved at an exempt status by Ohio University’s Institutional Review Board, #18-E-227

2 Other aspects of the dataset have been published elsewhere (Rubinsky, 2020, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2022). Excepting demographic data, none of the data in the present manuscript has been previously published.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.