After analyzing data on the self-reported levels of sexual activity and happiness of 16,000 people, Dartmouth College economist David Blachflower and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England report that sex “enters so strongly (and) positively in happiness equations” that they estimate increasing intercourse from once a month to once a week is equivalent to the amount of happiness generated by getting an additional $50,000 in income for the average American.
“The evidence we see is that money brings some amounts of happiness, but not as much as what economists might have thought,” says Blanchflower. “We had to look to psychologists and realize that other things really matter.”
Their paper, “Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study,” recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, essentially puts an estimated dollar amount on the happiness level resulting from sex and its trappings.
Despite popular opinion, they find that having more money doesn’t mean you get more sex; there’s no difference between the frequency of sex and income level. But they do find sex seems to have a greater effect on happiness levels in highly educated — and presumingly wealthier — people than on those with lower educational status.
Overall, the happiest folks are those getting the most sex — married people, who report 30% more between-the-sheets action than single folks. In fact, the economists calculate that a lasting marriage equates to happiness generated by getting an extra $100,000 each year. Divorce, meanwhile, translates to a happiness depletion of $66,000 annually.
Whether that hefty happiness income boost is the result of marital bliss or more sex is up for debate. But their “econometric” calculations confirm what psychologists have long known: People who consider themselves happy are usually richer in sexual activity.
“Many studies confirm that people who are depressed have less sex,” says psychologist and sex therapist Robert Hatfield, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati and a spokesman for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. “Conversely, if you’re not depressed — ‘happy,’ as some might say — you’re more likely to have more frequent sex.”
Does sex lead to happiness, or are happy people just more likely to lead each other to the bedroom? That’s still under investigation, but there is evidence that psyche and sex feed off each other.
The key to a successful relationship is having sex just once a week: Doing it more frequently makes no difference to happiness levels is result od arecent study. The results come from surveys of more than 30,000 people over 40 years. There was no link between having sex more than once a week and higher happiness levels. Sex was more more strongly associated with happiness than money. But there were no differences in the findings based on gender or age.
In one study, researchers analysed survey responses about sexual frequency and general happiness from more than 25,000 Americans. This included 11,285 men and 14,225 women who took the General Social Survey from 1989 to 2012. The biennial survey, conducted by the University of Chicago, covers a wide range of sociological issues, including opinions about race relations, religion and sex. The researchers also conducted an online survey with 335 people – 138 men, 197 women – who were in long-term relationships and found similar results as the first study. These participants were additionally asked about their annual income. A third study analysed survey results collected at three time points over 14 years from more than 2,400 married couples in the US.
The above set of researches prove that apart from sex being a known source of pleasure it is embedded with the cause to provide happiness.
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