Deciding whether to have sex on the first date? Science has the answer.

It’s a polarising yet personal dilemma: Should you have sex on the first date?

The overwhelming response you’ve no doubt received is no, you absolutely should not. For we women, you see, should have more self-respect than so frivolously being intimate with another human.

We should keep them guessing, leave it to the imagination, make them work for it… or so we’ve been told. 

But new research is questioning this message, suggesting sex on the first date may actually have benefits in the long run for forming an emotional bond between prospective partners.

According to Israeli-based Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the University of Rochester's Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, sex helps to initiate a romantic relationship and further encourages a real attachment between two people.

"Sex may set the stage for deepening the emotional connection between strangers," says the study's lead author Gurit Birnbaum, a social psychologist and associate professor of psychology at the IDC Herzliya.

"This holds true for both men and women. Sex motivates human beings to connect, regardless of gender."

Professor Brinbaum further concluded, after conducting a number of studies, that sexual acts evolved for reproduction purposes, which is not dependent on an emotional connection, however that the joint care of their children keeps the two adults bonded.

"Sexual desire may play a causally important role in the development of relationships," says Birnbaum. "It's the magnetism that holds partners together long enough for an attachment bond to form."

The study, however, was limited to only focusing on heterosexual relationships.

Previous research has supported these claims, as pointed out in the study, that sexual desire facilitates an emotional connection.

And whilst sleeping with someone on the first date remains a personal decision for you to make, the next time you inevitably hear that you shouldn't have sex on the first date, you can just tell them that science doesn't agree.