When Austen Hensley and his ex-girlfriend started spending time together, they had no intention of entering a monogamous relationship. “Neither of us were looking for anything serious,” says Hensley, Wichita junior. “The more we talked and hung out, the more we just kind of fell into it.”

  Hensley says they had been “hooking up” for about a month before they decided to make it official. Though the relationship lasted three and a half years, Hensley is still skeptical about the quality of long-term relationships that develop out of casual sex or “friends with benefits.”

 “They could work if the two people truly cared enough about each other,” Hensley says. “But in my experience, when you actually get to know the person beforehand, it works a little better.”

 Hensley may be right. In a study released in the Social Science Research journals, researchers surveyed 642 heterosexual adults to measure the quality of their serious relationships.

 Anthony Paik, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who headed the study, says it suggests that relationships are more rewarding for people who delay sex. But, it’s not just because the couples decided to wait.

 “The quality of relationships might deal directly with who is in those relationships, rather than the manner in which they were initiated,” Paik says. “Some hook-ups do lead to a long-lasting relationship, but most of them don’t because people are either not looking for that or are predisposed to low relationship qualities.”

 Paik says people who are prone to finding relationships unrewarding tend to seek out purely casual hookups. But, people interested in establishing relationships are just as happy about “hooking up” as those who enter serious relationships traditionally. He says you’re more likely to find a good match by delaying sexual involvement, simply because you share similar long-term expectations.

 “When people don’t delay sexual involvement, there’s a good chance that one or both partners will leave or end the relationship very quickly because a long-term commitment is generally not what they’re looking for,” Paik says.

 Paik says the study suggests that because expectations are so low, casual dating may not be the best way to develop a long-term relationship. He says being casual doesn’t give people looking for true love the opportunity to screen out non-romantic people with different goals.

 But monogamy isn’t for everyone. Omri Gillath, an assistant professor of social psychology, says the concepts of “friends with benefits,” staying single for life and having non-traditional families are less stigmatized today than in the past, allowing people to feel more secure about about things like having casual sex. Though casual sex has become a trend, he says people’s opportunity for monogamy has more to do with their own expectations than their sex practices.

 “If you’re having sex just for the heck of it, monogamy might not be something you’re interested in,” Gillath says. “But if you’re having sex because you’re in love or falling in love, exclusivity can still be a possibility in a casual sex situation.”

 Gillath says sexual strategies depend on the short-term or long-term goals that you have in mind. He says that as people begin to invest more time in their careers, they think less about committing to relationships. “Friends with benefits,” then, becomes a convenient way to establish casual relationships.

 This “friends with benefits” approach worked for Libbey Barry, St. Louis senior, who began her relationship with no serious intentions. She and her boyfriend met shortly after they had each ended long-term relationships, but have now been dating for more than a year.

 “I had just broken up with my boyfriend and he had just broken up with his girlfriend, so we both just wanted to hang out and keep each other company because we were kind of lonely,” Barry says. “It was definitely nothing serious, we would just hang out a couple nights a week.”

 Barry says the two had known each other before their break-ups, but developed a “friends with benefits” relationship shortly after. She says what started as a fun, casual hook-up turned into an official relationship after only two months of seeing each other. As they grew closer, the two started talking about how their inital expectations had changed and realized they both wanted the relationship to move in a new direction.

 Communicating with your partner about your relationship expectations is key to making something more out of casual sex. For two people not looking for a serious relationship, casual sex may be the way to go. Otherwise, delaying sex and getting to know someone may be a better option. That way, you know you both have similar long-term expectations.