There is a lay assumption that women’s sexual desire varies substantially over time, whereas men’s is stable. This assumption is mirrored in prominent theories of desire, which posit that women are more variable than men in the extent to which they desire sex, and that women’s sexual desire is more contextually sensitive than men’s. We tested this assumption across three longitudinal studies. Study 1 assessed desire at 3 time points spanning 13 years (N_observations = 5562), and Studies 2 and 3 (N_observations = 11,282) assessed desire moment-to-moment over 7 days. When desire was measured over years, women were more variable in their sexual desire than men (Study 1). However, we found a different pattern of results when desire was measured over the short term. In Studies 2 and 3, we found no significant differences in women’s and men’s desire variability. The extent to which desire varied as a function of affective states (e.g., happiness) and relationship-oriented states (e.g., partner closeness) was similar for women and men, with some exceptions; women’s desire was more negatively associated with tiredness and anger in Study 2. These data qualify existing assumptions about sex differences in sexual desire variability.

人们普遍认为，女性的性欲会随着时间的推移而发生很大变化，而男性的性欲则稳定。这一假设反映在著名的欲望理论中，该理论认为，女性对性的渴望程度比男性更加多变，而且女性的性欲比男性的性欲更具情境敏感性。我们通过三项纵向研究检验了这一假设。研究 1 在 13 年的 3 个时间点评估了欲望（N 个_观察值 = 5562），研究 2 和 3（N 个_观察值） = 11,282) 7 天内实时评估的欲望。当多年来对性欲进行测量时，女性的性欲比男性更具变化性（研究 1）。然而，当短期内测量欲望时，我们发现了不同的结果模式。在研究 2 和研究 3 中，我们发现女性和男性的欲望变化没有显着差异。对于女性和男性来说，欲望随情感状态（例如幸福）和关系导向状态（例如伴侣亲密程度）而变化的程度相似，但也有一些例外。在研究 2 中，女性的性欲与疲劳和愤怒呈负相关。这些数据验证了关于性欲变异性性别差异的现有假设。