Maybe it’s not just the sexy accents that compel American women to seek out European men. According to a new paper published in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, European men have longer penises on average than American dudes. Out of 113 nationalities included in the study, men in the U.S. measured in at an average of 5.1 inches long, falling short of men from Iceland, who reported 6.5 inches, on average. Italy (6.2”), Sweden (5.9”), and Greece (5.8”) also surpassed our stateside fellows.
Top length, however, goes to The Republic of Congo, with an average size of–you might want to sit down for this–7.1 inches. Ecuador and Ghana place second and third on the globe with 7 and 6.8 inches, respectively.
But don’t book tickets abroad just yet. The study author is a noted controversial figure in academic circles, and the stats he gathered were from Internet websites. For all we know, these figures only prove that men from the Republic of Congo have the biggest… imaginations.
In any case, penis size isn’t actually an indicator of a man’s sexual prowess—or whether you’re going to have an orgasm. “The size of the organ doesn’t matter so much as technique, foreplay and stimulation of the nerves surrounding the clitoris, vagina, and vulva,” says Debra Wickman, MD, co-founder of SHE: Sexual Health Experts, a dedicated sexual health practice.
If anything, Wickman says, girth is more important than length—most of the nerves are located in the first few inches of our vaginas, and a wider penis is better able to stimulate those nerves. In fact, Wickman cautions that when it comes to penises, bigger isn’t always better: “Increased length can often be more a cause of pain—the penis can hit your cervix, which can be really uncomfortable.”
Want to increase your chances of hitting the big O, regardless of how big (or not) your partner’s penis is? Check out these tips. You can thank us later.