Women's mate retention behaviors, personality traits, and fellatio

Women perform oral sex on their male partner (i.e., fellatio) as part of a Benefit-Provisioning mate retention strategy, and women's personality predicts their interest in, and time spent, performing fellatio. We explored whether women's mate retention behavior mediates the relationship between their personality traits and their performance of fellatio in a long-term romantic relationship. Women (n = 401) reported their personality traits, the frequency with which they performed mate retention behaviors during the past month, and their interest in and the time they spent performing fellatio on their partner during their most recent sexual encounter. The results indicate that women higher in Conscientiousness spend more time performing fellatio on their partner, and this relationship is mediated by their Benefit-Provisioning mate retention. Women higher in Agreeableness report greater interest in performing fellatio on their partner, and less Cost-Inflicting mate retention, but mate retention behaviors do not mediate the relationship between their Agreeableness and their interest in performing fellatio. The current research is the first to investigate the relationship between women's personality traits and oral sex behaviors, and contributes to research documenting that mate retention strategies are associated with sexual behavior.