Ira Leonard Reiss (December 8, 1925 – January 9, 2024) was an American sociologist with primary interests in studying the way society impacts sexual attitudes and behaviors and how people respond to those pressures.

[1] Reiss's major goal was to promulgate a broad view of science and to shape the study of sexuality to fit that pluralistic perspective of scientific work.

[2][3] He stressed the importance of building theoretical explanations because he felt that theory opens pathways that enable us to understand and to contain our many sexual problem areas.

Reiss strongly supported the development of a multidisciplinary sexual science field with its own Ph.D. program at one of our major universities.

He felt that Alfred Kinsey had focused on the area of behavior and neglected the importance of sexual attitudes and standards.

Starting in the late 1950s he developed a scale that measured a person's degree of premarital sexual permissiveness.

[8] Reiss early on sought to discover what socio/cultural factors altered people's level of premarital sexual permissiveness.

The text had a cross cultural and historical emphasis and a research and theory base for the explanatory concepts that were developed.

In 1980 Reiss and two of his colleagues published a research and theory paper on factors that predicted a person's attitudes towards extramarital sexuality.

These three elements were the basis of his Linkage Theory explaining differences and similarities in how sexuality was viewed in various societies.

In 1990 the Reisses predicted that the U.S. society would move further toward HER sexual pluralism and thus have higher condom usage, lower teen pregnancy rates, greater gender equality, and more acceptance of homosexuality—and all those trends have occurred.

[45][46] In the year 2000 Ira Reiss and Albert Ellis decided to publish a book with their personal letters to each other from the 1950s and 1960s regarding sexual attitudes and behaviors.

[48][49][50] In 2006 Reiss published a memoir in which he informally discussed the sexual science research and theory work that he had done over the years and integrated that with accounts of his interactions with other key sexologists in this field.

[51] This book is a source for those interested in gaining an overall insight into Reiss's research and theory work as well as learning more about the many other sexologists who are key influences on sexual science today.

[52][53] Latterly, Reiss stressed the need for our sexual science organizations to do more advocacy work, especially when the important research and theories produced are misrepresented or misused by politicians or others.