McGarity is the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair in Administrative Law, and Wagner, is the Joe A. Worsham Centennial Professor in Law at The University of Texas at Austin. Their book was published by Harvard University Press.

The awards are the highest honor of literary achievement given to published authors at The University of Texas at Austin. They are sponsored by the University Co-operative Society.

Michael Granof, chairperson of the Co-operative Society, hosted the event and announced the winners. Victoria Rodriguez, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, presented the awards.

Four faculty members received $3,000 prizes for their books. They were:

• Jacqueline Jones, the Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas and Mastin Gentry White Professor in Southern History, “Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War” (A. A. Knopf, 2008).

• Peter MacNeilage, professor of psychology, “The Origin of Speech” (Oxford University Press, 2008).

• Tracie Matysik, associate professor of history, “Reforming the Moral Subject: Ethics and Sexuality in Central Europe, 1890-1930” (Cornell University Press, 2009).

• Karen Rascati, the Stewart Turley/Eckerd Corporation Centennial Endowed Professor in Pharmacy, “Essentials of Pharmacoeconomics” (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2008).

The University Co-op is a not-for-profit corporation owned by the students, faculty and staff of The University of Texas at Austin. Since the year 2000, the University Co-op has given more than $28 million in gifts and rebates.

Buss: Why women have sex is important from several different perspectives. One is a deeper understanding of the paths to personal happiness. Women’s sexual experiences can create soaring heights of ecstasy and deep fulfillment (becoming “one” with another person; transcendental spiritual experiences such as feeling closer to God). Others can lead to the depths of despair. Some women in our studies had sex in order to assuage their loneliness, which works in some cases, but in other cases leads women to feel a sense of self-loathing and social rejection that is truly heart breaking. So understanding why women have sex has many practical advantages for women and their partners.

Meston: I don’t think women, in general, spend a lot of time thinking about why they have sex. By reading all the experiences of different women, I believe it may lead some women to think more about the consequences of their own sexual choices. They might think “when I have sex for x, I feel really good afterward; when I have sex because of y, I feel crappy.” In other words, it might help women to become more informed “consumers” of sex.

What findings surprised you the most?

Meston: We knew motivations were more complex than it feeling good, or trying to have a baby. But we were still astonished by the amazing diversity of sexual motivations – from the mundane to a sense of adventure to borderline evil. It was also interesting to discover how the same sexual motivation could have vastly different consequences for different women – having “revenge sex” led some women to feel less cheated, like the score was now evened. For other women it made them feel cheap and regretful. The outcome of the sexual choice is obviously related to each woman’s unique personal past as well as her current moral, religious and cultural beliefs.

Buss: One thing that surprised me was what I refer to as the “darker” aspects of women’s sexual motivation. Some women had sex to get revenge. For example, revenge against a best friend who had slept with the woman’s boyfriend or husband, or revenge against a partner who had cheated on her. A few women even had sex in order to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease!

Aside from an emotional connection or physical attraction, what are some other reasons for why women have sex?

Meston: So many women responded by saying they were forced into having sex, or that they had no choice, so we thought it was an important topic to cover. It’s important to study women who have experienced sexual abuse because it could have consequences on their sexual satisfaction and functioning into adulthood.

Buss: Another set of findings that surprised me centered on the intensity of women’s sexual competition with other women. Sometimes it’s a battlefield out there, and I think men are largely unaware of the intensity of women’s sexual competition!

In comparison to men, do women have more complex reasons for having sex?

Buss: Women’s sexual psychology is complex, far more complex that I envisioned when Cindy and I first embarked on this project. What turns women on physiologically in terms of sexual arousal, for example, is not necessarily the same as what turns women on psychologically. For men, in contrast, there’s a closer connection between psychological and physiological sexual arousal. This is just one example of how a deeper understanding of women’s sexual psychology, and how it differs from men, can lead to deeper sexual and romantic relationships between women and men.

What sets your research apart from other sexual health studies?

Meston: There has been a lot of research on how people are having sex and how often they’re doing it. But the more important question is why they’re doing it. If we’re going to have any impact on reinforcing sexual behaviors or techniques that will enhance sexual satisfaction, we need to investigate why women are having sex in the first place. For example, if a woman is having frequent unprotected sex, telling her to use a condom is not going to be an effective intervention if her motivation to do so is to punish herself. We need to understand the underlying sexual motivation if we are to make positive behavioral change.

Do you think this book could help strengthen relationships between men and women, both emotionally and physically?

Meston: Good sex in a relationship isn’t talked about that much. But bad sex or low sex drives are the key reasons why people have extramarital affairs – and ultimately for the demise of relationships and marriages. Sex and money are the two top reasons why people get divorced, so this book is a very good resource for married couples.

Buss: Women’s sexual motivations, which lead to sexual experiences, touch so many other domains of their lives. They affect women’s social relationships with men and with other women; they influence women’s social and sexual reputations; they influence women’s sense of identity and self-esteem. It’s difficult to think of a domain that has more far-reaching consequences than women’s sexual experiences, which are driven in large part by their sexual motivations.

Could men benefit from this book too?

Meston: I think by reading this book, men will truly get into the sexual psychology of women. Understanding why women have sex and what makes it a gratifying experience and what doesn’t is going to help men become more empathic and good sexual partners in their relationships. A lot of women and men have a hard time communicating about their sexuality, especially for couples in long-term relationships. I think it would be much easier to read a book and gain some insight into some of those mysteries.

Buss: I think it should be required reading for all men. Our book illuminates women’s sexuality, ranging from the physiology of sexual orgasm and “sexual healing” to the complexities of women’s sexual psychology. It will help men to become better lovers and better partners. The book will also help women to understand their own sexuality, as well as the sexuality of their friends, sisters and other women they care about.

How can this book help women learn more about themselves?

Buss: Some women think that they are alone in the sexual experiences they’ve had, and in some ways, each sexual experience is unique. But we think that many women will be able to identify with the women in our book, since they too have had similar sexual experiences. Women will also learn a lot about the circumstances that lead to positive sexual outcomes, and just as important, the circumstances that can lead to sexual disasters, which can cause some women to suffer years of sexual regret. Although we did not write the book as a self-help book, we believe that women will learn a great deal of useful information about their own sexuality from reading our book.

About the Authors
Cindy M. Meston is one of the world’s leading researchers on women’s sexuality and a professor of clinical psychology. She is also the director of the Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory, a cutting-edge lab on women’s sexual experience.

David M. Buss, one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology, is a professor of psychology and the author of several books, including “The Evolution of Desire” and “The Dangerous Passion.” Their jointly authored article, “Why Humans Have Sex,” garnered international attention when it was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

However, the commercialized celebration of romantic love doesn’t often acknowledge the darker side of many relationships, which may include obsession, jealousy and even murder.

In his recent research, David Buss, UT professor of psychology and leading researcher in the field of evolutionary psychology, delves into the underbelly of romantic relationships to shed light on the psychology of love, desire, passion and sex.

Keep reading to learn more about his three recent books: “The Murderer Next Door,” “The Evolution of Desire” and “The Dangerous Passion.”

Sleeping with the Enemy
Based on the largest homicidal fantasy study ever conducted, Buss explains why we are all wired to kill, and what might push us over the edge in “The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill” (Penguin, 2005). Using evolutionary psychology, he explains how the human mind developed adaptations to kill throughout human evolution, when murder was a necessity in the brutal game of reproductive competition.

Investigating the motives and circumstances of homicides—from demented serial killers to the seemingly harmless next-door neighbor—Buss conducts a detailed study of more than 400,000 FBI files, in which 13,670 of those cases involved a man killing his wife. Taking readers on a journey into the mind of a killer with harrowing stories of homicide cases and quotes from survey participants about the murders they fantasized about committing, he explains when they are most at risk for being murdered, or becoming the murderer.

Unearthing the Roots of Desire
Can women and men just be friends? What do women really want? Are men more promiscuous than women? In “The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating” (Basic Books, 2003), Buss offers evolutionary explanations to some of the most baffling questions about sexual desire and attachment.

Based on a global survey of 10,047 respondents in 37 cultures, he revealed that much of our romantic behavior is hard-wired from our evolutionary origins. Drawing from the study, he explains why men prefer attractive, faithful young women, and women gravitate toward men with money, social status and power. With a focus on gender differences in sexual agendas, Buss reveals how mating strategies have remained the same since the dawn of time.

Jealousy on Mars and Venus
Refuting the belief that jealousy is a sign of insecurity, Buss reveals that men and women are genetically designed for the green-eyed monster in “The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy is as Necessary as Love and Sex” (Free Press, 2000). Drawing from experiments, surveys and interviews conducted in 37 countries on six continents, as well as insights from scientific discoveries, he explains how jealousy was adapted through human evolutions as an early detection system for reproductive threats.

Delving deep into the evolutionary past of the human species, Buss reveals how jealousy can not only destroy a relationship, but strengthen the bond as well. Taking readers on a journey through various cultures, from prehistoric times to present day, he also shows how women may elicit jealousy to increase their partner’s commitment and test the strength of a relationship.

In his new book “Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You” (Basic Books, 2008), Gosling reveals some of the key findings from his research, a special brand of voyeurism he calls “snoopology.”

Smithsonian Magazine recently wrote about Gosling’s work in the Oct. 21 story “How to Be a Snoop.” Check it out and tell us what you think. Are you a snoop?