According to this article in Yahoo News, the majority of men lie about the amount of sex they have had. Best guess is that the psychologist who reports the study isn't getting any.


Most surveys about sex find impossibly that men have had far more partners than women, typically two to four times as many.

Either there are a bunch of phantom females out there, or somebody is lying.

Or perhaps men just have lousy memories.

Psychologist Norman R. Brown at the University of Michigan has done several studies on the apparent flaw in these surveys. The latest was a web-based survey of 2,065 heterosexual non-virgins with a median age in their late 40s.

The women reported on average 8.6 lifetime sexual partners. The men claimed 31.9.

Rather than let it go at that, Brown and his colleagues later in the survey asked the participants to rate the truthfulness of their response. About 5 percent said they lied. In addition, more than 10 percent said they knew their answer wasn't accurate.

"They gave an answer and then two minutes later admitted they had lied about the answer," Brown said.

But there's more to the discrepancy. Men and women use different methods to calculate their past dalliances.

Women rely on a raw count, a method Brown says is known to result in underestimation.

"They tend to say, 'I just know,' and if you ask them to explain how they know, they say, 'Well, there was John, Tom, etc.'"

Men also rely on a flawed strategy.

"Men are twice as likely to use rough approximation to answer the question," Brown said. "And rough approximation is a strategy known to produce over-estimation."

Then again, maybe Brown's study is flawed, too.

His next survey will be done by telephone, to find out if people lie and fudge as much in that medium, or if the Web-based surveys invite such behavior. The self-proclaimed liars "could be liars who lie about lying," he said.

CaptainChaos said:

Or they're gayer than they'd like to admit.

retina said:

I'm a virgin. No lies from me.

Maybe the women are the liars.

CarrieMpls said:

I think it's both actually. Women underestimate the numbers for the same cultural reasons that men overestimate them.

retina said:

That's what I was thinking also.

Maybe more women have past lovers they'd rather forget...

Or...maybe women have a different standard for what actually qualifies as sex...

Yanno...if she doesn't, um, "finish"...it's not sex...and if HE "finishes" in a minute and a half, it sure as hell ain't sex...lol

I posted a thread about this once.
Most men seem to want to hear their women are damn near virgins.

1sexymf said:

I just want to hear my correct name during the act...

i'm having sex right now! honest!

Byron said:

what, someone called you Bryon before?

1sexymf said:

I'd like to think the double standard is going away but I don't think it is.
Thats said, I'm not sure there should be a standard. As long as all are tested and safe and such, it shouldn't be a big deal. But I know sometimes it just IS. I don't know...

1sexymf said:

More like "You, there"...

Byron said:

Hey you! Left, right,right left, up down, down, up, round and around - you don't like traffic cops?

1sexymf said:

The whistle and the citations can be a bit intimidating...lol

Byron said:

Was she at least wearing those tidy white gloves?

Byron said:

So you like the handcuffs and leather?

CarrieMpls said:

AND the cap...

Searches, and digs for cop costume.
Where did I put that?

1sexymf said:

Byron said:

You forgot the leg cuffs

1sexymf said:

You only mentioned handcuffs and leather...lol

Anx said:

No you're not...there aren't any typos...

Byron said:

i use spellcheck...i believe in safe text

Anx said:

Anx said: