Once again, NIU’s Health Enhancement Services has substantiated yet another aspect of student life that many people probably assumed to be fact.

HES has confirmed students are more likely to have sex if they have been drinking.

A survey conducted of 752 NIU students states 46 percent of the respondents are more likely to have sexual intercourse when they are drinking. Only four percent said they are less likely to have sexual intercourse under the same conditions.

But 41 percent of the respondents didn’t think drinking could affect sexual behavior.

“Students want to have sex, but they usually have been told that they should not, so they drink to overcome the imposition,” said Michael Haines, director of Health Enhancement Services.

“The majority of students are experiencing peer pressure that does not allow them not to drink. Drinking becomes a way to socialize. Engaging into sexual activities may be the ultimate means of getting recognized,” Haines said.

According to the survey, a majority of students also think women who are drinking alcohol are more likely to have intercourse.

Nationwide, people are less likely to drink to stimulate sexual relations than NIU students. According to a survey conducted at Duke University at Durham, North Carolina, only one in five women and one in three men “drink more than normal to make it easier to have sex,” while almost half of NIU undergraduates are doing so.

Furthermore, a nationwide survey published in USA Today found that drinking has resulted in men being coerced into having sex.

The negative effects of having sex under the influence of alcohol include regretting having made the decision to have sex, feelings of coercion, and having to fake sexual enjoyment.

The study has revealed that more than 50 percent of women have pretended to enjoy sex compared to fewer than 10 percent of men.

In addition, up to 85 percent of women say they’ve changed their minds during the sex act; 5 percent to 20 percent of men report it has happened to them.