Quickie: Do Men Really Lie About Their Sexual Partners?
Researchers show the creative sex accounting differences between men and women
When it comes to the number of lifetime sexual partners men and women report having, it’s clear that men tend to claim a much higher body count than women. But are they really telling the truth?
To find out the reasons for these discrepancies, researcher Dr. Kirstin Mitchell and her colleagues examined data from the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, which found that men reported having twice as many lifetime sexual partners as women, with the average lovers being 14 and 7 respectively.
One reason for this is, of course, the different sexual attitudes of men and women. For example, when asked their views about one-night stands, 18 percent of men said they were “not wrong at all,” while only nine percent of women agreed. Also, 65 percent of women said they believed having an affair is “always wrong,” while 57 percent of surveyed men held this opinion.
However, researchers explained in their study, which was published in The Journal of Sex Research, part of the reporting difference is caused by the way men and women handle their sexual partner accounting. While women are more likely to actually count each of their sexual partners…
