Fast Friends with Benefits: Using a Modified Fast-Friends Paradigm to Improve Sexual Satisfaction, a Pilot Study

Prior research has found plentiful correlational evidence that sexual self-disclosure is linked to sexual satisfaction. Furthermore, there have been two proposed pathways for this mechanism as a whole. The first is the expressive pathway, which states that through self-disclosure the couple comes closer together and thus the overall relationship improves as a whole, thus leading to greater sexual satisfaction. The second is the instrumental pathway, which states that sexual self-disclosure is linked to greater understanding of one’s partner’s sexual desires and needs, and as such the sex improves. However, no research to date has tested this association for causality. In order to manipulate self-disclosure, I piloted a modified fast-friends paradigm dubbed the fast-friends with benefits to potentially improve the sexual satisfaction of couples in new romantic relationships. The results of this pilot show that the fast-friends-with benefits has promise to demonstrate causality, and potentially serve as an intervention that can be used by the broad public to improve their sexual relationships.