Risk of sperm competition moderates the relationship between men’s satisfaction with their partner and men’s interest in their partner’s copulatory orgasm

Sperm competition occurs when the sperm of multiple males concurrently occupy a female’s reproductive tract and compete for fertilization. Sperm competition may have been a recurrent adaptive problem over human evolutionary history (Shackelford & Pound, 2006). Women’s orgasm may facilitate selective uptake and retention of a particular man’s sperm (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008). Men who are more satisfied with and invested in their relationship may experience greater costs in the event of sperm competition and potential cuckoldry. Therefore, these men may be especially interested in ensuring their partner’s copulatory orgasm. We hypothesized that men’s relationship satisfaction and investment would predict interest in their partner’s copulatory orgasm, and that sperm competition risk would moderate the association between relationship satisfaction and interest in partner’s copulatory orgasm. Using structural equation modeling on self-report data secured from 229 men in a committed heterosexual relationship, we tested and found support for these hypotheses.