Five sex myths busted

If so, you might have to say goodbye to your hot cup of caffeine. A study by a group of US psychologists has found these beliefs, plus three other common sex myths, aren't necessarily true.
 
Prepare to have your mind blown (a poor choice of words, perhaps? Eh, we're gonna go with it) as we debunk five commonly held beliefs about sex.
 

Myth #1: Men look for sexy, women look for status

Evolutionary logic would have us believe that men want physically phenomenal partners who will provide them with physically phenomenal offspring. And women want a man with wealth or status, because he'll make a good provider. While some of us might have vague preferences for these traits in a mate, a 2008 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology which placed research participants in a speed-dating scenario found when face-to-face with a potential partner, these ideals didn't hold up.

Myth #2: Men want lots of sex partners, women want fewer

Survey results on this topic are often skewed due to men inflating their number of desired partners in response to perceived pressure to have had sex with more women than they actually have, explains University of Michigan psychologist Terri Conley. Conley says the typical response to the question in such studies usually reveals the majority of men and women seek the same number of sexual partners.

As for actual numbers of partners, Conley references research in the 2003 Journal of Sex Research that found in studies where participants believe they are hooked-up to a lie detector test, men tend to report very similar numbers to women.

Myth #3: Men think about sex more than women

Studies have shown men do technically think about sex more times per day than women, but they also think about other primal desires such as eating and sleeping more, too, according to a study published in 2011 in the Journal of Sex Research. So while they do ponder sex more, it's not necessarily more important to the blokes than the ladies.

Myth #4: Women orgasm less than men

Overall it is true, women do orgasm less often than men. But the gap shrinks significantly for women in relationships — they orgasm 79 percent as frequently as men, according to a study published in the book Families as They Really Are (WW Norton and Co., 2009). Women engaged in a casual hook-up or one-night-stand only reached climax a third as much as men.

Myth #5: Men are less picky than women

There's a common perception that men aren't particularly fussy about who they have as a sexual partner, while women are much more selective. But research into this belief has found that pickiness doesn't gender discriminate: it all depends on who's pursuing who. A 2009 study published in Psychological Science found that people are more likely to be choosier when they're approached by a potential partner, and less choosy when they're doing the approaching. Because in the dating world the onus is often the guys to make the first move, women may just have more of an opportunity to display their selectiveness.

Your say: Do you agree or disagree with the myths?

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