by Snow Vandemore

Created on: August 13, 2008   Last Updated: August 26, 2008

Although the vast majority of men and women would prefer to consider themselves fairly savvy competitors in today's sophisticated sexual society, there's nothing like that little encounter called the one-night-stand that can transform the best of us from suave to stupid faster than you can say coyote ugly. The one-night-stand still remains one of the great equalizers of modern times - age, income, social status, education - it doesn't matter. Even the best players at the game can falter when it comes to knowing what to do, what to say, after basic instincts were allowed to win over common sense.

According to a recent online survey involving some 75,000 pollsters, it's all too apparent there hasn't been much progress in defining, let alone practicing, proper one-night-stand etiquette. The results presented by two of Yahoo's e-zines, www.AskMen.com and www.Shine.com, indicate men and women are indeed polar opposites regarding their views on, and their experience with, spur-of-the-moment hook-ups.

How common are one-night stands?

Even with all we know today about the threat of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases, the one-night-stand apparently is still as popular today as ever. In fact, when asked the Yahoo survey question "Approximately how many one-night stands have you had?", 56% of the men and 57% of the women sampled, indicated they had had at least one or more of these encounters. More interestingly, perhaps, is how each gender felt about the event afterwards.

How do people perceive them?

The more things change, the more they stay the same - this is certainly true concerning men's and women's revealing thoughts about the morning after. In another recent study conducted by the journal, Human Nature, the majority of the men said the one-night-stand made them feel "greater sexual satisfaction, happiness and confidence." However, for women, an overwhelming sense of being "used," "regret," and "feeling cheap" was the norm.

So if women only derive negative feelings from the experience, why do they subject themselves to it in the first place? It may have more to do with poor self-image than it does with Darwinism, but both are contributing factors.

Women stated being propositioned for a casual night of sex made them feel "desirable," "flattered," "happy" and "wanted." To delve a bit deeper on the evolutionary side of the coin - women are hard-wired to seek out the best genes for their future progeny. By sleeping with someone who possesses favorable physical

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