Desire and identity are two things that are often linked but don’t always have to go hand-in-hand. At least according to Robert Burriss, Ph.D.Burriss is an evolutionary psychologist who studies human attraction and teaches at Basel University.
In a new piece published by Psychology Today, he explains the difference between desire and identity.“A person can identify as straight but still desire or engage in sexual contact with persons of the same gender,” he writes.He points to a recent study by Arielle Kuperberg of the University of North Carolina and Alicia Walker of Missouri State University, which looked at the sexual encounters of college students.The study was conducted over the course of six years and surveyed about 24,000 adults.