{
  "id": 1690626,
  "title": "Mindful partners use less hostile ways to say no to sex, study finds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/mindful-partners-use-less-hostile-ways-to-say-no-to-sex-study-finds",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-18T10:00:58.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/mindful-partners-use-less-hostile-ways-to-say-no-to-sex/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When a romantic partner declines a sexual advance, the way that decline is communicated can greatly impact the health of the relationship. A recent psychological study published in The Journal of Sex Research reveals that individuals who practice mindfulness tend to turn down sexual advances in a more non-hostile manner, which is associated with higher relationship and sexual satisfaction. Rejection is often one of the most painful experiences in life, especially when it occurs in the context of intimate sexual encounters. In monogamous relationships, a rejection of a partner's sexual desires might signal a perceived failure to meet their physical needs, intensifying the emotional impact. Researchers have identified four main strategies people use when rejecting sexual advances: reassuring, hostile, assertive, and deflecting. Among these, reassuring strategies express continued love and positivity while declining sex, hostile strategies involve critical or hurtful rejections, assertive strategies are confident and direct refusals, and deflecting strategies involve passive or avoidant behaviors. A team of researchers led by Jiaxuan Du from the University of Edinburgh sought to understand how mindfulness influences these rejection strategies. They conducted three studies involving survey, experimental, and long-term observational methods to examine the relationship between mindfulness, rejection strategies, and relationship satisfaction. In the first study, 383 adults in romantic relationships completed surveys assessing their general tendency to be mindful in daily life (trait mindfulness) and their frequency of using each of the four rejection strategies. The results showed that people with higher trait mindfulness reported using fewer hostile and deflecting strategies, and when controlling for other factors like age and sexual frequency, they also used more assertive rejection strategies. However, higher trait mindfulness was not linked to an increased use of reassuring rejection strategies. Statistical models further indicated that the tendency to avoid hostile and deflecting responses helped explain why mindful individuals felt more satisfied with their sex lives and relationships. In a second study, 409 participants were assigned to either a brief mindfulness audio exercise or an unrelated educational audio clip. While the mindfulness exercise slightly increased state mindfulness, it did not change the way participants chose to reject sexual advances. However, the researchers found that participants who naturally had a higher baseline level of mindfulness tended to use more reassuring rejection strategies and reported less hostile rejection in their real-life interactions. These findings suggest that mindfulness may help people navigate sexual rejection more constructively, leading to higher relationship and sexual satisfaction.",
  "summary": "Saying no to sex can cause emotional strain in a romantic relationship. A new psychological evaluation finds that mindful individuals reject their partners with less hostility, fostering better communication and higher overall relationship satisfaction.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}