Good listeners are better lovers, proclaims a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
"Our hypothesis is that empathetic individuals are more responsive to a partner's needs, and thus initiate a positive feedback cycle," researcher Adena Galinsky of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told LiveScience.
Empathetic men, in particular, were more likely to enjoy themselves in the sack, Ms. Galinsky reported in the study, which analyzed data from about 3,200 students aged 18 to 26.
While women with high levels of empathy, self-esteem and autonomy experienced greater pleasure in their sex lives than women with lower levels of the traits, empathetic men enjoyed more sexual satisfaction than their more brutish counterparts.
Maybe bad boys aren't the best at it all, after all, or as the writers at Jezebel put it: "Extremely well-adjusted individuals might seem a bit boring, but there's a good chance they're having more fun in bed."
Another surprise may be just how much men enjoy pleasuring women.
"The reality is that the majority of young men really like engaging in activities in which the goal is giving their partner pleasure," Ms. Galinsky said. "There is a pretty consistent difference between young men and young women."
Translation? Men like giving their partners oral sex more than women do.
While the findings are generally heartening, they become worrisome when placed in the context of another body of research that has found today's college students are 40-per-cent less empathetic than those attending school in the 1980s and 1990s.
This University of Michigan study analyzed the personality tests of 13,737 students over 30 years and found that "perspective-taking," that's the ability to imagine another person's side, was dwindling.
This and the much-debated influence of internet porn on the male brain is also troubling.
What do you make of the findings? Obvious or counter-intuitive, in your experience?
Zosia Bielski