[4] National surveys in the U.S. and Canada as of 2012 show that three to four percent of male teenagers, when given the choice to select a term that best describes their sexual feelings, desires, and behaviors, opt for "mostly" or "predominantly" heterosexual.
And in a national sample of young men whose average age was 22, the "mostly straight" proportion increased when they completed the same survey six years later.
An even higher percentage of post-high-school young-adult men in the U.S. and in a handful of other countries (including New Zealand and Norway) make the same choice.
[6][better source needed] An analytical review article looking at the experiences and meanings of same-sex sexual encounters among men and women who identify as heterosexual found that a large portion of same-sex encounters occur among those who identify as heterosexual.
Findings from the National Survey of Family Growth data from 2011 to 2015 revealed another insight into how much same-sex attraction and behavior can be accounted for by heterosexually identifying people.
[8] Research suggesting the influence of prenatal androgen exposure on female sexual identity places heteroflexibility on a continuum with bisexuality and lesbianism.
[10][11][12] Unlike "bisexual until graduation" and similar pejoratives, heteroflexibility is typically considered to have a positive connotation, and is often a self-applied label, although the use of the term as a pop-culture slur has been attested.
They may feel that occasional sex with men is a result of female unavailability, or that their same-sex attraction is infrequent enough to not affect their identity.
[16] Representation of heteroflexibility in media is often used to show that the piece is LGBT-inclusive while keeping the narrative's focus on heterosexuality.
A popular plot twist is that a heterosexual female character is willing to engage in same-sex intimacy, just for a kiss or a night.
[19] In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the protagonist Rebecca's actions are primarily motivated by an obsessive attachment to her ex-boyfriend Josh, although she occasionally hints at attraction to women, and at one point, she describes herself as a 1.8 on the Kinsey scale.