So. How much sex do we really want? More, of course!
But how much more? A new study by University of Colorado, Boulder, sociologist Tim Wadsworth revealed that more sex is relative: turns out what we want is more sex than our neighbors.
Sex apparently is like income: People are generally happy when they keep pace with the Joneses and they're even happier if they get a bit more.
That's one finding of Tim Wadsworth, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who recently published the results of a study of how sexual frequency corresponds with happiness.
As has been well documented with income, the happiness linked with having more sex can rise or fall depending on how individuals believe they measure up to their peers, Wadsworth found. [...]
Using national survey data and statistical analyses, Wadsworth found that people reported steadily higher levels of happiness as they reported steadily higher sexual frequency. But he also found that even after controlling for their own sexual frequency, people who believed they were having less sex than their peers were unhappier than those who believed they were having as much or more than their peers.
"There's an overall increase in sense of well-being that comes with engaging in sex more frequently, but there's also this relative aspect to it," he said. "Having more sex makes us happy, but thinking that we are having more sex than other people makes us even happier."
Link - via PopSci (Image: Shutterstock)
Is it news that people are happier when they think they're better than their neighbours?