Quality of sex is more associated with happiness than frequency.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – In spite of several other studies or virtually any magazine tips, researchers found that sex just once a week is enough for happy couples, and that any more beyond it could be extra. There are numerous claims that more sex equals more happiness in a relationship, but a team of researchers found the correlation to be minimal.
The study boasts itself as being the first cut the link between frequency of sex and happiness in a relationship. Researchers surveyed around 30,000 Americans, mainly in heterosexual marriages or long relationships. Their findings suggest that having sex more than just once per week was not associated to more happiness. In fact, as long as the intimate connection is maintained, it’s enough.
The same was found to be available for single people.
This goes against multiple other researchers that encouraged having sex several times weekly to keep the relationship healthy and happy. The association between frequency of intercourse and happiness was just 7% of the total. However, according to Amy Muise who authored the study, there’s no need to have sex every day. Essentially, anything beyond once per week is just extra.
There was no difference between genders, ages, ethnicities, or length of the relationship. It’s certainly an important factor that helps maintain an intimate connection though. In fact, researchers found that sex is more important than money when associated with happiness.
Couples who had sex weekly were much happier than those who had sex just monthly. However, the gap much bigger between those of lower income ($15,000 to $25,000) versus those with higher incomes ($50,000 to $75,000). This points to the fact that intercourse is certainly significant, but just not in frequency.
The study arrives in direct opposition to multiple others that claim there is a strong association between having sex more often and happiness. Other researches have also pointed out that there might be a reverse effect.
George Loewenstein, for example, also conducted an experiment on 64 married couples. Half of them were asked to double the amount of sex they have per week. By the end of it, it was found that those who have 40% more sex were not happier, just less energetic and were actually having worse sex. This was why Loewenstein has underlined the fact that Muise’s study might just be “correlational rather than causal”.
The conclusion states that where the sex-happiness association is concerned, it’s quality over quantity. The quality of sex can certainly influence happiness more than frequency. Of course though, what little is good, then more must be better.
Image source: self.com