The researchers analysed long-term couples’ cuddling and caressing behaviour as well as their sex lives. They then looked at how it affected their happiness and sexual satisfaction.
Men who are kissed, cuddled and sexually caressed by their partners are two times more likely to be happy in their relationship than men whose partners don’t shower them with physical affection, the researchers found.
Intimate
In fact, frequent cuddles and caresses are even more important for a man’s happiness than how often he has sex. And men who cared about their partners’ orgasm more than whether or not they reached orgasm themselves are actually happier in their relationship.
When it comes to feeling sexually satisfied, it isn’t all about sex for men. It appears that the more often a man is physically intimate with his partner, the more likely he is to report feeling satisfied with his sex life.
Arousal
Surprisingly, how happy a woman is in her relationship doesn’t depend on things like kissing, cuddling and caressing, the study found. Instead, women base their satisfaction rating more on how often they felt sexual arousal and desire.
These findings warrant a re-evaluation of just how important physical affection is for long-term relationship happiness and sex satisfaction for men and women, say the researchers.
*To protect the identity, names have been changed and the person/s in the picture is/are models.
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