Research indicates sex makes us happy

Here is a shock. NEWS.com.au reports on a study in the US by the National Bureau of Economic Research:

"Research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States has found a strong link between people's happiness and the amount of sex they have.

Although the research also shows that people with high incomes are happier than people with low incomes, it found that there is no relationship between people's earnings and the amount of sex they have.

It is not money but quantity that counts. Happiest are those who have sex more than four times a week. They are about 6 per cent of the population. Unhappiest are the 22 per cent of people in the study of 16,000 Americans who didn't have sex at all in the previous year.

However, the relationship between sex and happiness does not extend to the number of sexual partners a person has a year. The more sexual partners one has (several respondents to the survey reported more than 100 in the past year), the unhappier. "

The report costs $5 from NBER. Those seeking to do further primary research on this topic are invited to email this blogger. The full abstract is priceless and reads:

This paper studies the links between income, sexual behavior and reported happiness. It uses recent data on a random sample of 16,000 adult Americans. The paper finds that sexual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations. Greater income does not buy more sex, nor more sexual partners. The typical American has sexual intercourse 2-3 times a month. Married people have more sex than those who are single, divorced, widowed or separated. Sexual activity appears to have greater effects on the happiness of highly educated people than those with low levels of education. The happiness-maximizing number of sexual partners in the previous year is calculated to be 1. Highly educated females tend to have fewer sexual partners. Homosexuality has no statistically significant effect on happiness. Our conclusions are based on pooled cross-section equations in which it is not possible to correct for the endogeneity of sexual activity. The statistical results should be treated cautiously.