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THE DISPARITY BETWEEN the number of sexual partners reported by men and women can largely be explained by a tendency in men to report extreme numbers and estimate rather than count their total, according to a new study.
The research, published in the Journal of Sex Research, found that together with gender differences in attitudes towards casual sex, this explains the gender gap found in many sex surveys.
Dr Kirstin Mitchell of the University of Glasgow and colleagues analysed the responses of over 15,000 men and women aged between 16 and 74 in the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes.
The study sought to better understand why men always report more opposite sex partners on average than women, even though the average number should be about the same. Men in the survey reported an average of 14 partners over their lifetime while women reported seven.
Individuals who reported very high numbers of partners naturally skewed the average and this effect was stronger for men than for women. Men and women at the top end reported 110 and 50 or more partners respectively. Excluding these men and women reduced the overall average and began to close the gender gap.
The gap was further reduced when the participants’ accounting strategy was taken into consideration. Men were more likely than women to estimate rather than count sexual partners. For example, among those reporting between five and nine partners, 24% of men estimated compared with 15% of women.
According to the research, sexual attitudes also had an impact on reporting, with women generally being more conservative in their attitudes than men. They were less likely to view one-night stands as ‘not wrong at all’ (9% versus 18%) and more likely to view a married person having sex with someone other than their partner as ‘always wrong’ (65% versus 57%). Adjusting figures to take these attitudes into account narrowed the gender gap even further.
Dr Mitchell said accurate reporting of sexual partners is crucial for many reasons, including assessing individual risk of sexually transmitted infections and estimating the rate of transmission.
“Most existing studies of reporting bias are limited to students or high-risk populations, or are conducted as ‘laboratory’ settings, so they don’t show how members of the public respond in a ‘real-life’ survey. To our knowledge, our study is the first attempt to look at all the key types of explanation for the gender discrepancy within the same large and representative sample.”
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Maybe I missed out on some new technique but from the look of the photo I dont think they are doing it right!
@Ennui Kenny: I think it’s something new. Wonder if it’ll catch on.
@Ennui Kenny: They’re filling out the paperwork .
@Ennui Kenny: I’d say they’re having a wee game of cards under the blankets before getting down to the good stuff. She wins, he’s got to do the massage and flowers routine – he wins, she’s got to bring her sister around.
Assuming men and women are entirely equal, we can conclude that half the time he’ll win. Hence the skewed averages in this highly scientific report.
@Ennui Kenny: They are just bearing their souls to each other, bad joke.
@TamuMassif2019: *soles*
@Ken Hayden: the consent forms
@Jonathan Baum: Whoa there ! Start with the gender recognition form first .
Article 5: 4 . deals with consent .
@Ennui Kenny: how bad are you! That’s so funny.
@Ennui Kenny: that could be the after play!
@Ken Hayden: It was a joke, so I had to spell it that way for the joke to work…
@Jonathan Baum: They won’t start until the starter gun fires…
@Ennui Kenny: it’s the new radical safe sex position being pushed by the church.
From discussions with friends, if they’re male, divide by two, if female, multiply by two.
Why should the average number of sexual partners reported by heterosexual men and women be the same? I know this involves maths, which everybody hates, but that doesn’t mean it is an assumption that can be made.
@Dave Slater: Eh, because men and women are absolutely 100% the same in every way.
It is basic maths logic but it’ll be easier to understand with an example.
Assume there are two men in the world (M1 and M2) and two women in the world (W1 and W2). We ask M1 how many sex partners he has had? He says he has 2. We ask M2 how many sex partners he has had? He says 0. So the average sex partners of the men is 1. (2+0 divided by 2) So M1 must have had sex with W1 and W2. M2 had sex with no-one.
So let’s ask the women. W1 says she has had one sex partner. We know this is M1 from above. W2 says she has had one sex partner. Again, we know this is M1 from above. So the average of sex partners of women is also 1. (1+1 divided by 2)
You can extend this example out to 3 men and 3 women or 1 million men and 1 million women but the maths logic remains. If both groups are telling the truth, you should get the same average for both groups.
@Low Energy Jeb: Those “basic maths” only work if you ask every single person on Earth (let’s assume for a moment that there are no men on Mars and no women on Venus).
If on the other hand the “researchers” handed out the survey forms at a building site on a sunny day, and then stopped by a convent to hand out some more survey forms, there is a chance that the results would be influenced, although in which way, I could not possibly predict!
@Low Energy Jeb: Thanks dad
@Philip O Brien: Not necessarily. You’d expect the people who are running the surveys to use proper sampling and statistical techniques. When they do, you should get a sampling average that approaches the population average.
Your building site/convent survey would be meaningless due to the sampling method you used. It’s not a random or representative sample.
@Low Energy Jeb: My building site/convent sampling, em, example, was intended to highlight exactly what I think of this “survey”. It’s just a silly exercise, with an accompanying silly conclusion, based on impossible to obtain information, since even if the entire population was asked, they’d still have to answer honestly in order for the data to be of good quality.
My point here was to do with the maths, however. And moreover, since there is not a 50-50 breakdown of men and women in the population generally, there cannot be an even match of “conquests”, shall I call them.
all women lie about having one night stands all the time as they dont want to appear slutty… fooling no one though
@Billy the great: Even your sister?
@Billy the great: Just make sure she’s home by midnight.
@Billy the great: I never did this before… I know love, I know
@Eugene Walsh: “I’m usually not like this on the first nite” as a bloke it takes serious effort not to laugh when some bird says that :D
@Billy the great: You must be at least 18 years old to post on this website.
@Billy the great: No. Thats what you and some men Want to hear. Then unconsciously you feel it will ‘ validate’ your own behaviours. It wont..
@Margate: still goes back to why even say that in the first place, because that’s what men like to hear ?
I should probably explain.’ Billy the incel’ got roasted earlier about his virginity, so he,s now trying to prove his manhood by belittling women and pretending he was actually inside one at some stage…
@Dermo Adams: Em… I can pretty much guarantee you that he was. At least once.
@Dermo Adams: you’re belittling common sense and integrity. Some women belittle themselves , they don’t need men to do it for them , perhaps they should just tell the truth in these surveys , but that might be asking too much .
@Billy the great: I’m a liar? Thanks :D personally I wouldn’t see any problem with one night stands or being considered “slurry”.
@Billy the great: Lucky for you that all some women want is sex. You’d be getting nothing otherwise.
@Magic Frog Wizard: Just 2.
@James Joseph Superior Power: The article refers to a gender gap and I’ve often seen articles on here about the gender pay gap. Why isn’t it called a sex pay gap? Is it because the far left ideology isn’t internally consistent?
maybe i’m a bit locked right now but…The headline says ‘why’ but the article doesn’t go on to explain why?
Irish women are generally frigid
@Stevie Doran: this made me laugh. Are you a bit bitter there Stevie?
@Stevie Doran: They tend not to need to get pregnant to get a passport .
@Ruth Corbally: turned down too many times I’d say ..
@Stevie Doran: You may need to change your strategy, bucko. Firstly, forget the library.
Try these time-zones instead: 23h00 – 03h00 on a Friday or Saturday evening. From frigid to frisky in three tequilas.
@Philip O Brien: that’s only good advice if you want Stevie to get arrested.
@Ruth Corbally: Incels out in force on this article
@Stevie Doran: Frigid? I think youll find that youre repulsive.
@Magic Frog Wizard: Give us all a break..for once.
Because they want to be the ‘study that’s why
@Magic Frog Wizard: Two sexes. Many genders. There is a difference.
Another fake news article by a male bashing lefty. While on average men might tend to overstate their sexual conquests to enhance their egos, women on average understate their number to give a different image impression. (Males might count a “nearly” on the list and females tend to omit the “conquests” they later regretted). When I was younger the rule of thumb was to divide the lads number by 2 and to multiply the girls’ number by 2. This gave a more accurate number as lads average was 16 and girls was 4… Actual number for both probably 8. To answer the WHY question in the article headline, the disparity is down to untruths by both genders not just the males.
@Edward Smith: Racist!!!
The photo illustration is clearly and unambiguously an illustration of the correct and Holy “Contraceptive Free Missionary Position”.
Are ye stoopid or wat?
Tut tut!
Liars
Why do you think ?
Iv done pretty ok by them numbers…
All my shags were crap. Not worth bragging about.
@Paul: We’ll be the judge of that . Any pictures ?
@Paul: Might I suggest you avail of an alternative orifice, my good fellow, in order to improve these grim statistics!
@Ken Hayden: I like your style
What a load of nonsense. People do rubbish like this as a job? Where do I sign up? Men exaggerate the numbers because the higher the no the bigger the “stud” he is. Some women falsely lower the number so not to be seen as “easy” or a “slapper” Why do we overcomplicate everything today?
@Magic Frog Wizard: lol
Are we afraid of the truth? someone is telling porkies. Either that or a smaller number of women are having multiple sexual partners. I prefer to think that we just lie.
@James Joseph Superior Power: 2 genders???
have your say