Coolidge Effect: How does it influence relationships?

The Coolidge Effect It has to do with the fact that we feel more attracted to a new sexual partner. Its existence has been demonstrated in both humans and other mammals, although we must also know the nuances.

The biological explanation suggests that, faced with the possibility of a new sexual relationship, with a new or different partner, dopamine levels would increase. This increase would also make our excitement greater.

Is this effect purely biological? How is it related to infidelities, open relationships or attraction to porn? When we fall in love, can the Coolidge effect also interfere with our relationship? Or is there less risk? Let’s know the answers to all this, here!

Coolidge effect: what is it?

The Coolidge effect is a phenomenon observed in both men and women (and in the case of animals, males and females) in which an increase in the willingness to have sexual relations is shown in the presence of new receptive partners (Brown, 1974).

That is, it refers to the tendency to notice and feel attracted to novelty in the sexual field and this is related to an increase in dopamine levels. This effect has been demonstrated in mammals and the term was coined in 1955 by the ethologist Frank A. Beach, although as stated in Dewsbury (2000), it was a psychology student who suggested this term to the ethologist.

The story that explains its origin

However, behind the Coolidge effect we find a curious story that would explain its origin. The story, told in Dewsbury (2000), takes us to the 1920s, when the president of the United States at the time, Calvin Coolidge, was visiting a farm with his wife Grace.

Grace noticed that there was a rooster that mated frequently, which made her ask the farmer: “How many times a day does this rooster usually have sex?”; The farmer replied, “Dozens of times a day.”

Then, Coolidge’s wife, fascinated by the answer, asked the farmer to tell her husband. He did so, and the president responded: “Always with the same chicken?”, to which the farmer said: “No, no, with different chickens”; “Well, tell that to Mrs. Coolidge,” the president concluded. From this anecdote, which many understand as a joke, arises the effect that bears the president’s name.the Coolidge effect.

How does it influence relationships?

How does the Coolidge effect influence relationships? There are some authors who claim that this phenomenon is behind others such as infidelities, porn or the fact that there are more and more couples who decide to open their relationship, fleeing from traditional monogamy.

The reality is that novelty attracts us, we like it, it can even excite us. and that is what would explain the previous phenomena; Logically, not all of us end up falling into infidelities, and not all of us even like movies with erotic content (to a greater or lesser degree), but we can think that the Coolidge effect could explain these other phenomena.

Through porn, for example, we can access a large number of videos with very different protagonists (that is, novelty, variety), which keeps dopamine levels high.

And what about falling in love?

The Coolidge Effect could make some (evolutionary) sense in animals that seek to perpetuate the species with the greatest possible number of offspring and genetic richness. But what happens in the case of humans? It would not be so easy to extrapolate since, when we fall in love, for example, we “do not care” about the novelty, and we only want to be with the person we love.

However, we can also relate all of this to dopamine: when we fall in love, its levels (as well as other hormones) increase exponentially (and when something surprises us a lot, that is, in the face of novelty, dopamine is also high) .

But, experts say, When a couple enters a routine phase, dopamine begins to decline, and more than being euphoric (as at the beginning) with each other, we are calm. Thus, it is at these moments that the Coolidge effect could be easiest to appear.

The Coolidge effect and sex

As we said, the Coolidge effect has been demonstrated in mammals (for example in rodents), but also in humans. An example of this is what happens when we finish having sex; In men, after ejaculating, the so-called refractory period appears, a period necessary to become aroused again (usually lasting a few minutes, depending on several factors).

Well then, This period decreases when the person is with a new partner, which would partly explain the Coolidge effect. Therefore, including variety (toys, breaking the routine, new positions, surprising the other…) in the sexual field can help us keep the relationship “alive” in this sense.

As we see, the Coolidge effect, although it is also proven in humans, does not have to happen to all of us, nor in the same way. Novelty attracts us, yes (especially on a “biological” level), but with nuances.

On the other hand, at the roots of this phenomenon we find a lot of biology and we must not forget that, in addition to animals, we are also people, so the most rational, most human part, and that related to feelings, would also have a role here. . That is, these other parts (or facets of the person) could modulate the Coolidge effect.

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