by Alice Paulse; Photography by Unsplash
Are you counting up the number in your head?
That awkward situation where your partner asks about how many guys you’ve been with before him and you try and tip toe around the actual number, in an attempt not to hurt his feelings or have him look at you differently? Is there such a thing as an acceptable number? We tackle this…
A recent study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, found that people want a partner with a bit of past, but not too much. Crazy right? Using an internet survey where 188 participants had to rate their inclination to engage in a relationship. With individuals who had a specified number of past sexual partners, ranging from 0 to 60. What was not surprising is that the effect of that past number was very large.
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Could You Past Sexual Number Affect Your Attractiveness?
The aim of this study was to explore whether it does. Both men and women were asked about the past number of sexual partners someone they fancied could have had. Whether it would affect their eagerness to become involved with this person in a long term and short term relationship.
Researchers found few differences between men and women in how they perceived a potential partner’s promiscuity. When it came to short-term relationships, men were more willing than women to get involved with a woman who had a greater number of past sex partners; however the difference was not huge.
Long-Term Relationships
For both sexes, when considering a long-term relationship, there was no sex difference. Which is dissimilar to the notion that male promiscuity is tolerated but female promiscuity is a no-no. However, both sexes stated hesitation to get involved with a partner who had an overly broad sexual history.
Do You Pass The Sexual Numbers Test?
For both sexes, when considering a long-term relationship, their ideal partner was someone who had 2-3 past partners, however this declined significantly at about 12-14 past partners. When it came to short-term relationships. The ideal was more varied with tolerable levels of past partners up to a certain number. Such as 5-6 for women and 9-11 for men.
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Whether you in between 2-3 or in fall in the 9-11 range, we ain’t judging… like Britney Spears says ” it’s your prerogative”, gal.
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