How many sexual partners have you had

[Jon Miller]

Or boys and girls are not reporting accurately.

This was anonymous.

JM

[Heraclitus]

This was anonymous.

JM

Thursday, August 16, 2007
Lies, Damn LIes, and the Number of Sexual Partners
A few days ago, Gina Kolata reported in the New York Times on the paradox of studies on sexual behavior consistently reporting (heterosexual) men having more sexual partners than women, with a recent US study reporting men having a median number of 7 partners and women a median number of 4. Contrary to what's stated in the paper, this is not mathematically impossible (key word: median). It is however quite implausible, requiring a relatively small number of women to account for a large fraction of all men's partners.

An answer to this paradox can be found in Truth and consequences: using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self-reported sexuality, by Michele Alexander and Terry Fisher, Jorunal of Sex Research 40(1), February 2003.

In their study, a sample of men and women are each divided into three groups and asked to fill a survey on sexual behavior. People in one group filled the survey alone in a room with an open door, a researcher sitting outside, and after being told the study was not anonymous; people in a second group filled the survey in a room with a closed door and an explicit assurance of anonymity; people in a third group filled the survey attached to what they believe to be a working ``lie detector.''

In the first group, women reported on average 2.6 partners, men 3.7. In the second group, it was women 3.4 and men 4.2. In the third group, it was women 4.4 and men 4.0.

http://in-theory.blogspot.com/2007/0...of-sexual.html


I was always perplexed at how exactly the meme that men have more sexual partners is so commonly believed, when my anecdotal evidence from my life always pointed in the opposite direction.

[Jon Miller]

This was done with much better assurances of anonymity then previous studies, according to the links. They felt it was more likely to be accurately reported than previous ones (which gave relatively similar results).

Also, even your post just suggested that if they thought they were anonymous and if they thouht there was a lie detector that their responses was about the same for men (a bit off for women).

JM

[DaShi]

There is one that really bothers me.

I can't remember her name. Just that wouldn't bother me so much, but she was murdered about a year after I knew her. Given what I konw about her, it is unlikely that anybody else remembers her by now. So it bothers me that I cannot remember her name.

Somebody should remember her.

Why? That person will just die as well. Then you would have someone remember that he remembered her until that person dies too? Then another to remember him and what he remembered until the human brain begins to look like a KH spoiler post?

[Dis]

The real question is why humans place so much importance on sex and why conduct a study in the first place. It's not like they conduct studies of how many dumps you take in a lifetime. But sex is a human function just as taking a dump. Some freaks combine the two. :vomit: There is more to life than just sex. And yes I've had dumps that were more pleasurable than sex. Sex isn't everything.

Now get to work! or get to studying if you are in school.

[DaShi]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_an_average_human_defecate_in_a_day

[Flubber]

And yes I've had dumps that were more pleasurable than sex.

Words fail me

[Flubber]

On male female differences in reporting of partners

1. part of it will be a male tendency to over-estimate and a femal tendency to under-estimate--

2. also anecdotally and from my observations it does happen that a very few very promiscuous women can run through a lot of guys-- I look back to my high school where in a small school you pretty much knew about everyone. by senior year 75% of the girls were at 0 or 1 partners. Another 20% were at 2-4. But we had about 1 girl in 20 who would have had 30+ partners by then. THis was the girl that would go out partying, get drunk or stoned and end up with 4-5 guys on the night. Or would blow the guy that bought them beer or whatever. The most promisculous guy would not come close to the most promiscuous girl in numbers. You might still see 40-50% of the guys with 0-1 partners at that stage but as early as late high school I think that there were more guys that had 2-4 partners than girls.

Put another way-- an average looking single guy seeking sex goes out 7 nights seeking a sexual partner being slightly picky-- How often does he succeed?

an average looking single gal seeking sex goes out 7 nights seeking a sexual partner being slightly picky-- How often does SHE succeed?

[Heraclitus]

Also, even your post just suggested that if they thought they were anonymous and if they thouht there was a lie detector that their responses was about the same for men (a bit off for women).

JM

First off, if I recall correctly any mod can see how you post. Secondly, there are girls on apolyton despite claims to the contrary.

[KrazyHorse]

why?

The demographics of Poly.

[KrazyHorse]

Or boys and girls are not reporting accurately.

This

[KrazyHorse]

This was anonymous.

JM

Anonymity does not guarantee accurate reporting, Jon. The fact that you think it does makes me question your grasp of basic human psychology.

[KrazyHorse]

By the way, I don't doubt that there are people on here who actually have had 31+ sexual partners. I just doubt that 9 out of 49 "serious" voters have.

[Guynemer]

Exactly.

31+ is unlikely, but definitely attainable. If I hadn't met the future wife when I did, I probably would've passed that mark long ago. In the first year I moved down to Columbus, I more than doubled my total. Nowadays, with match.com and whatnot, it's pretty easy to meet lots and lots of potential partners.

[Wezil]

Or boys and girls are not reporting accurately.

I think it was called the Rule of Three (guys 3X overestimate, girls 3X under).