After decades of sexuality research, there is a lot that we do not know about sexual pleasure. This research attempts to shed light on this area of sexual experience, including how people gain knowledge about sexual pleasure, the comparisons they make between their own sexual pleasure and various sources of information, and the impact that these comparisons may have on their perceptions of their sexual experiences. For example, how do people know how much sexual pleasure they should be experiencing? How do they know when they should strive for more, or whether they are already experiencing above average levels? According to Festinger (1954) people need to evaluate their opinions and abilities to be able to act in the world. Therefore, people use social comparisons, the utilization of information about others for the purpose of self-assessment, to evaluate their experiences and react accordingly. Social comparisons have been demonstrated to occur in a number of areas of social life that are relevant to sexuality and sexual pleasure, including romantic relationship comparisons (White, 2010), relational standards (Wayment, 2005), perceptions of peers’ sexual behaviour (Martens, Page, Mowry, Damann, Taylor, & Cimini, 2006), and comparisons to media portrayals of romantic relationships and sex (Aubrey, Harrison, Kramer, & Yellin, 2003; Ward, 2003). However, potential sources of comparison and whether these comparisons occur within the domain of sexual pleasure have not been examined. In order to make comparisons about sexual pleasure, people must first have a target of comparison from which they received information regarding sexual pleasure (i.e. a reference point). Although research exists regarding sexual education and sexual socialization generally, to date none appears to examine people’s sources of information regarding sexual pleasure. The current research will attempt to address the following research questions: What are people’s sources of information about sexual pleasure? Ideally, what would their sources of information about sexual pleasure be? Do people make comparisons between themselves or their experiences and these sources of information? Participants will be asked to indicate, from a list of possible sources of information, which sources they have received information from in the past, what sources of information they ideally would use, and what sources they would use in the event that they have a specific question. Participants will then be asked to indicate whether they compare their experiences to the information from each source they selected, and about the nature of the comparison. Responses to the current study will be used to inform future research that will seek to determine the effects of different sources of information and types of comparisons on experiences of pleasure, commitment, and sexual satisfaction. **Hypotheses** Hypothesis 1: Friends, internet sources, pornography, and one’s own sexual experiences will be the most prevalent and used sources of information and comparison regarding sexual pleasure. Sexuality is largely considered a private rather than public topic, and we therefore believe it is likely that people’s information is mostly gained from close others (friends) who they talk to about private topics, or they choose to get their information through private experience rather than outright discussions. These sources are also easily accessible to the vast majority of participants in our sample. Hypothesis 2: Doctors (family and other), parents (mother and father), teachers, and the scientific literature will be the least prevalent sources of information and comparison regarding sexual pleasure. Previous research has demonstrated that only a minority of people discuss sex with their doctors (e.g. Fisher, Dervaitis, Bryan, Silcox, & Kohn, 2000), and although parents play an important role in the sexual education of their children (e.g. Dittus, Miller, Kotchick, & Forehand, 2004) they are unlikely to provide information on sexual pleasure, as they tend to discuss “safer” topics such as reproductive facts, changes related to puberty, and negative consequences of engaging in sexual activity, such as STIs (Miller, Kotchick, Dorsey, Forehand, & Ham, 1998; Nolin & Petersen, 1992; Warren, 1995). In addition, these sources of information may not be accessible to all participants in our sample, either because they do not have these sources readily available in their lives (e.g. teacher may not be available to middle-aged and older adults), or may provide information that is too formal or dense for the average person to regularly pursue (e.g. scientific literature). Hypothesis 3: Men will be more likely than women to indicate that pornography is a source of information and comparison. Although women are increasingly becoming consumers of pornography (Berman, 2014), males consume more pornography than women, measured by both time and frequency (Hald, 2006), offering greater opportunities for information about sexual pleasure to be gained from pornography by men, and greater opportunities for comparisons to be made. Hypothesis 4: Older adults will indicate that their doctor or gynecologist and their partner are sources of information more so than emerging adults. Older adults are more susceptible to age-related sexual dysfunction (e.g., Corona et al., 2009; Lewis et al., 2004), and this may lead to more frequent conversations regarding sex between older adults and their doctors and partners, which may include discussing sexual pleasure. Hypothesis 5: Participants will indicate they feel their recent experiences of sexual pleasure are more similar to those of close others (i.e. friends, romantic partners, their own past experiences, etc.) than to information from the media and from pornography. Previous research has indicated that individuals assume similarity between their experiences and those of their romantic partners (Schul & Vinokur, 2000) and their close friends (Lee et al., 2009), whereas the media and pornography can be seen as creating unrealistic expectations for sexual experiences (Fordham, 2006; McKee, 2007), which may cause participants to feel less similar to those sources. Hypothesis 6: Participants who indicate they make more upward comparisons will report lower sexual satisfaction, commitment, and pleasure than those who make more downward comparisons. Research has suggested that upward social comparisons can lower self-regard (Brown, Novick, Lord, & Richards,1992; Cash, Cash, & Butters, 1983; Thornton & Moore, 1993), although it has also been suggested that these comparisons may also provide inspiration to improve oneself (Brewer & Weber, 1994; Brickman & Bulman, 1977; Brown et al., 1992; Buunk, Collins, Taylor, VanYperen, & Dakof, 1990; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). Downward comparisons can elevate self-regard, and increase one's subjective well-being (Cash, Cash, & Butters, 1983; Wills, 1981; Wood, Taylor, & Lichtman, 1985). Hypothesis 7: Participants who indicate they use pornography as a source of information and comparison will report lower sexual satisfaction, commitment, and pleasure, and higher erotophilia. Erotophilia is associated with more motivation to use pornography than erotophobia (Paul & Shim, 2008), pornography use has been associated with lower sexual satisfaction (Maddox et al., 2011; Short, Black, Smith, Wetterneck, & Wells, 2012; Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004; Yucel & Gassanov, 2010), and lower pornography use may be associated with greater commitment (Lambert et al., 2012). We also intend to explore whether endorsement of other sources of information and comparison are associated with differences in experiences of sexual pleasure, erotophobia-erotophilia, investment and commitment processes, and sexual satisfaction. Hypothesis 8: Participants will indicate that they are most confident in the information they receive from textbooks, teachers, doctors (family and other), and internet sources. These sources often present information rooted in science, which may increase participants’ confidence in the information they receive. Consistent with this notion, previous research has found that people favor information from experts when the volume of information is low (Flanagin & Metzger, 2013) (i.e. since sexual pleasure is typically considered a private topic, the volume of information on it may be low, leading to a preference for information from health professionals and educators). We will also explore which sources of information individuals are most and least satisfied with. Hypothesis 9: Participants will indicate that they are least confident in the information they receive from pornography, and audio-visual media. These sources can involve acting, which may involve pretending to experience more/less pleasure than is actually being experienced. A lack of clarity regarding whether or not the information provided is based in reality may make participants’ less confident in the information received from these sources. The information received from these sources also may not be rooted in science, which may decrease participants’ confidence in the information they receive. Hypothesis 10: Participants who are higher in erotophilia will report using more sources of information and comparison. Individuals who are high on erotophobia tend to have negative attitudes towards sex and have negative affective responses to sexual stimuli (Byrne, 1977, 1983a, 1983b; Fisher et al., 1983, 1988), which may make them less likely to pursue information about and make comparisons regarding sexual pleasure.