Here is a feature exploring Baumeister’s theories as they apply to the psychology of cuckolding.
Traditional views see male sexuality as a straightforward, genitally driven imperative for multiple partners and dominance. Cuckolding shatters this. Baumeister would argue that: roy baumeister theory cuckolding psychology
Key Baumeister quote (paraphrased): “Masochism is not the pursuit of pain but the pursuit of self-diminishment. The masochist wants to become a thing, an object, to escape the pressures of agency.” Here is a feature exploring Baumeister’s theories as
: By adopting a submissive or "cuckolded" role, the individual temporarily sheds the pressure of being a competent, successful, or dominant social actor. The intense focus on bodily sensations and the immediate present replaces the "symbolically mediated identity" that is often a source of anxiety or guilt. In his seminal review of sexual research (including
In his seminal review of sexual research (including his book Gender, Nature, and Nurture and various papers on sexual economics), Baumeister offers insights that help explain why the cuckold dynamic (where a man derives pleasure from his partner having sex with someone else) holds such a specific psychological appeal for many men.
Baumeister is famous for the concept of —the degree to which a person’s sexual drive and preferences are shaped by social, cultural, and situational factors (versus being fixed biologically). He argued women generally have higher erotic plasticity, but men’s plasticity is underappreciated .