Original Article The psychology of breakup sex: Exploring the motivational factors and affective consequences of post-breakup sexual activity James B. Moran 1 , T. Joel Wade 2 , and Damian R. Murray 1 Abstract Popular culture has recently publicized a seemingly new postbreakup behavior called breakup sex. While the media expresses the benefits of participating in breakup sex, there is no research to support these claimed benefits. The current research was designed to begin to better understand this postbreakup behavior. In the first study, we examined how past breakup sex experiences made the individuals feel and how people predict they would feel in the future (n ¼ 212). Results suggested that men are more likely than women to have felt better about themselves, while women tend to state they felt better about the relationship after breakup sex. The second study (n ¼ 585) investigated why men and women engage in breakup sex. Results revealed that most breakup sex appears to be motivated by three factors: relationship maintenance, hedonism, and ambivalence. Men tended to support hedonistic and ambivalent reasons for having breakup sex more often than women. The two studies revealed that breakup sex may be differentially motivated (and may have different psychological consequences) for men and women and may not be as beneficial as the media suggests. Keywords breakup sex, sexual strategy theory, fiery limbo, postbreakup behavior, ex-sex, gender differences Date received: May 31, 2020; Accepted: May 31, 2020 Engaging in sexual contact with an ex-partner can have diverse consequences. The individuals in the ex-relationship could experience heartbreak and want to get back with one another. On the other hand, the members in the relationship could expe- rience a positive situation where they rekindle their relation- ship. Thus, deciding to engage in sexual contact with an ex seems to be paradoxical, and for several years, researchers have begun to further understand why this might be occurring. Sexual Contact With an Ex-Romantic Partner Individuals experience adverse outcomes from a breakup which can lead to a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in emotional distress (Slotter et al., 2010). However, gender differences exist in the psychological experience of a breakup. For example, women tend to report fewer negative feelings relative to men do after a breakup occurs (Choo et al., 1996; Hill et al., 1976) and report being happier with their breakup (DeLecce & Weisfeld, 2015). However, women are also more likely to initiate a breakup compared to men (DeLecce & Weis- feld, 2015). When men experience a breakup, they report feel- ings of sadness and grief more often than women (Rubin et al., 1981). Besides experiencing negative effects of a breakup, men are also more likely to experience more sexual frustration from breakups than women because of the loss of sexual access (DeLecce & Weisfeld, 2015). These emotional experiences of a breakup should be of particular interest to social scientists. If an individual is feeling grief or happiness about breaking up with their romantic partner, then why do individuals stay in contact with them? Research suggests that many ex-couples 1 Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA 2 Department of Psychology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA Corresponding Author: James B. Moran, Department of Psychology, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA. Email: jamesmoran320@gmail.com Evolutionary Psychology July-September 2020: 1–14 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1474704920936916 journals.sagepub.com/home/evp Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).