POLL RESULTS: "HOW MANY"

In last week’s poll entitled “How Many”, I asked,

“How many sexual partners have you had?”. 

The available answers were:

(A)   1-5

(B)   6-11

(C)   12-17

(D)   18-30

(E)    Who the hell knows?

Here are the results!!

Men age 27-35 had the highest rate of participation.  A whopping 35% of participating men chose answer (E): Who the hell knows!  27% of participating men chose option (D), and estimated they’ve had between 18 and 30 previous sexual partners, and another 18% indicated they’ve had between 12 and 17.

Out of women age 27-35, 34% reported to have had between 12 and 17 previous partners, 21% estimated between 6 and 11, and 13% reported having between 18 and 30.

PREVIOUS SEXUAL PARTNERS

It is a question wondered by both lovers and public health officials alike….How many sexual partners have you had in your lifetime?

Although men report having 2 to 4 times as many sexual partners as women, statisticians claim that the number is, on average, approximately the same for both genders.

So…are men simply lying to inflate their egos? Are women lying to downplay their sexual experience?

A study conducted at the University of Michigan found that most men and women don’t intentionally misrepresent their sexual histories.  Rather, male-female differences in the methods used to estimate their number of past partners is at fault for the discrepancy.

Women are more likely to rely on enumeration, meaning, they explain the number of men they’ve slept with in the following way: “Well there was Josh, then Tom…then James, ect, ect”.  This method results in underestimation.

Men, on the other hand, are twice as likely to use “rough approximation” to answer the question.  This rough guess is known to produce an over-estimation.

So there you have it folks!! In case you weren’t aware, both men and women are sexual creatures.  The number of previous sexual partners for any large group of people, is roughly the same for both genders!

Thank so much for participating in last week’s poll!

Be sure to weigh in on this week’s poll question: What’s more important!

Click here for my advice on how to answer the "how many" question!