Brainiacs Have Less Sex Than Their Peers, Are Totally F*cked (But Not Really)
Intellectual people spend less time in the sack, and more time in the stacks.
Smart sex might mean less sex.
Turns out intelligence isn't everything, especially when it comes to sex. Psychology Today reports that intelligent people tend to have fewer partners, and less sex overall.
But why?
The publication's surprising report draws on data from the National Survey of Family Growth, which shows that men with college degrees are half as likely to have had four or more partners in the last year as are men with a high school education alone.
Several experts weighed in, telling Psychology Today why higher IQs don’t necessarily mean higher numbers (in bed).
"Intelligence is negatively associated with sex frequency," said Rosemary Hopcroft, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. But why?
"It's hard to pick apart," said Anjani Chandra, a health scientist and demographer at the Centers for Disease Control. But the habits of one particular social group may provide unexpected insight.
Who? Teenagers, of course.
Smart kids aren't just smart in the classroom. They use their decision-making skills in real-life situations, too.
Carolyn Halpern, a professor at the UNC School of Public Health, found a high concentration of teen virgins at the top of the intelligence scale. She thinks the smartest kids might hold off on sex because they're thinking through its potential consequences.
Or maybe they just watched a few too many episodes of "16 and Pregnant" and acted accordingly?
So teenagers aren't just horny little sexters, after all?
Well, yes and no.
"Pursuing education takes up a lot of time," said Chandra. But that doesn't mean teens aren't having sex. It seems that teens, no matter their level of intelligence, are still having sex—but those with higher IQs are a bit more cautious, carefully deliberating their decisions.
Men, on the other hand...
Women seem to follow suit when it comes to the conclusions drawn from this survey. It's the men who may be the exception to the rule, or at least the outliers in the survey results. "Money, not intelligence, helps men have more sex," Hopcroft said. "In and of itself, intellect won't do the trick. But intelligence helps them get money."
So intelligence leads to money, and money leads to sex?
Okay, Don, we see you.
