Women’s preferences for penis size may affect men’s comfort with their own bodies and may have implications for sexual health. Studies of women’s penis size preferences typically have relied on their abstract ratings or selecting amongst 2D, flaccid images. This study used haptic stimuli to allow assessment of women’s size recall accuracy for the first time, as well as examine their preferences for erect penis sizes in different relationship contexts. Women (N = 75) selected amongst 33, 3D models. Women recalled model size accurately using this method, although they made more errors with respect to penis length than circumference. Women preferred a penis of slightly larger circumference and length for one-time (length = 6.4 inches/16.3 cm, circumference = 5.0 inches/12.7 cm) versus long-term (length = 6.3 inches/16.0 cm, circumference = 4.8 inches/12.2 cm) sexual partners. These first estimates of erect penis size preferences using 3D models suggest women accurately recall size and prefer penises only slightly larger than average.
Size preference and recall: Penis Size Preferences After completing the immediate recall task, participants answered 15 questions about their penis size preferences. Each involved picking one penis size model from amongst the 33 models available. The option No answer also was available for each. For this study, the key questions were to select the model that they believed best reflected the average of men, which size is most likely to carry a sexually transmitted infection, and which size she would prefer for different expected relationship durations. The questions about preferences for different types of partners were a bit more complex. For one-time partners the question was:
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Imagine you're single and you're out at a restaurant with some friends. You meet an attractive man who is also single. He seems kind, intelligent, funny, and has a great job. You are feeling sexually aroused. He says he's in town for a conference but he has to fly back home tomorrow afternoon. If you could spend only this one night with him, what size would you want him to be? For long-term partners the question was: What would be the ideal size for a husband or serious, long-term boyfriend? The question regarding shorter-term partners clearly included much more detail. This was done in an attempt to control for intervening variables not of interest. For example, if a woman doubted at all for her safety with an unknown partner, she might select smaller models in the event of sexual assault. Thus, safety cues were included in the characterization.
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Data analyses Recall error was calculated as the difference of the dimension the participant chose minus the size of the actual sample. Thus, a positive number would indicate that participants chose a model larger than what they were shown. A within-participant ANOVA was calculated with the interaction of dimension (length, circumference) by recall (immediate, delayed. Put another way, the accuracy of recall could be affected by length or circumference being recalled better than the other dimension (dimension factor), by the length of the delay was until they selected a model (recall), or an interaction where length or circumference were recalled better at either the shorter or longer delay.
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Descriptive data are provided regarding the size that women believed was average and the range women indicated for their smallest and largest sexual partner. To test whether womens preferences differ by partner type, an ANOVA with dimension (length, circumference) X partner (one-time, long term) predicting preferred inches was conducted. A custom model was specified without dimension as a main effect, because dimensions were stipulated to be different in the generation of the stimuli. : Results
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