Why Do Guys Send Dick Pics? An Expert Explains The Shocking Truth

A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS PICTURES OF PENISES AREN'T ALWAYS UNWANTED.

While texting a guy I'd been seeing, I set my phone down for a bit to watch TV. But as soon as it pinged again, I sensed what I was in for: yet another photo of an unsolicited penis… and I was right. "Why is it that men feel the need to send dick pics?" I wondered. So, I decided to do some research.

"It's most likely that this behavior represents an aspect of men's misperception of female sexual interest," clinical psychologist David Ley wrote on Psychology Today. "Men love the idea of receiving such pictures from strangers, and they assume women do too. Men notoriously misperceive women's sexual interest in them and project their own sexual interests and desires onto women. In this situation, men really are hoping and thinking that you'll be turned on and send them a pic in response."

The party line on social media is that women do not want to receive these images, even if they come from someone they find sexually appealing.

But maybe that's changing. In Match.com's 2019 "Singles in America" study, 31 percent of straight single men said they've been asked to send a dick pic. Now, given that the findings are self-reported, my initial response to the data was:

But according to renowned biological anthropologist and Match scientific adviser Helen Fisher, it does make some sense.

"It is a surprising statistic to me too," Fisher told Best Life. "But it is my understanding that a lot of the women who request dick pics are actually in or starting a relationship. And size does matter to over 65 percent of women. Too big can be painful. And too small, well, requires some mental adjustment. Nevertheless, it is remarkable. Perhaps women are using this as a courtship device—they want to compliment their man and this kind of compliment really reassures a man."

It's worth the reminder that there's still a big difference between a solicited dick pic and an unsolicited one, the latter of which is universally offensive and borders on a criminal offense.

But the recent "Singles in America" study claims that 35 percent of women and 38 percent of men have sent a sext photo, which might indicate that racy images are becoming the new norm in sexual foreplay. And for advice on how to up your sexting game, check out 18 Dirty Sex Emojis to Heat Up Your Sexts.

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