The University of West Florida recently conducted a study on “booty calls” involving 300 students, published in July’s Journal of Sex Research.

A “booty call” is a slang term for “a late night summons — often made via telephone — to arrange sexual liaisons on an ad hoc basis.”  Most college students today have at least a passing familiarity with the term, but few researchers have investigated what makes up these relationships.

This study finds that booty-call relationships are marked by less emotion than long-term partnerships but more sexual variety than one-night stands.  Booty calls mix the sexual and the emotional, but are distinct from either one-night stands or committed relationships.  

The students in this study took online surveys asking them how many times they had done certain acts during their booty call relationships. Some of these acts, like vaginal intercourse or oral sex, were sexual in nature. Others, like hand-holding or kissing, were emotional.

The team found that overall, emotional acts were less common in booty-call relationships compared with serious long-term relationships. On the other hand, sex acts were more common in booty-call relationships than in one-night stands, probably because the reoccurring nature of booty calls means more time for trying new things.

Emotional acts like kissing and hand-holding function as foreplay and act to escalate the relationship, in a very quick fashion, to sex.

Research suggests that booty-call relationships often end when one partner pushes the other for something more committed than casual sex. Avoiding conversation and leaving right after sex can prevent those emotional bonds from forming.