“A good listener and an understanding partner are right at the top of a woman’s list of must-have qualities in a partner/man. A recent scientific study conducted by a team of researchers from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health thinks the same although perhaps for different reasons”,writes Neha Gargi in healthenclave.com.

She write up is based on a study showing that the quality of empathy in a man helps him understand the sexual needs of his partner much better.And “so a woman experiences a higher level of sexual enjoyment with this man”,she writes.

Her article cites The Journal of Adolescent Health published the study’s findings.

“It’s one of the first studies to use a representative population sample of heterosexuals to find a relationship between key developmental assets and sexual pleasure.Qualities like self-esteem, independence and empathy are reflective of the person.

“They help an individual understand how a person behaves and responds to certain situations. The researchers used these three developmental assets and the three measures of sexual pleasure – regularity of orgasm, enjoyment of receiving oral sex and enjoyment of performing oral sex – to look for an association between them. For this the study involved 3237 participants between the ages of 18 and 26.

One of the findings of the study suggested that young women who are independent, empathetic and have high self-esteem have a positive relationship with the three types of measures of sexual pleasure. The three developmental qualities both in men and women allow them to experience higher levels of sexual pleasure.

It was also seen that empathetic men were more responsive to a woman’s needs and could easily initiate a positive feedback cycle. This means that such men are capable of understanding the needs of their partners quickly and can act accordingly, ultimately giving their women a high level of sexual pleasure.

The study also found that young men are more likely to have the highest level of sexual enjoyment as nearly 9 out of 10 men had an orgasm most or all the times they had sex in comparison to the women who had orgasms only 47 percent of the time. It also found that men enjoyed giving oral sex to their partners more than women.

The researchers are planning for a similar study in older men and women. This study has given a scientific reasoning to the already accepted theory that men who are good listeners are more responsive toward a woman’s needs. Such men tend to understand their partners better in terms of both psychological and sexual needs. So, next time, ladies, when you’re dating someone, look for the man who listens.”

For her article she has given credits to Science Daily’s article “Study links empathy, self-esteem, and autonomy with increased sexual enjoyment”and and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.