AUSTRALIA — Boys may not make passes at girls who wear glasses — but when they do, they’re liable to find out those brainy little minxes are more orgasmic than their fluffy headed friends, especially if they also earn more money or wield more professional authority.Those were some of the conclusions drawn by an Australian study that compared the orgasmic capabilities of better educated, higher wage earning heterosexual women with those of their lower income, more humbly educated sisters. Add English as the language spoken at home (and presumably in the bedroom) and the responsiveness gets even better.

Interestingly enough, it was age and not economics that were revealed as the big influencers on male orgasmic response, 98.4-percent of whom claimed an orgasm during their lat sexual encounter with another person.

Among the 10,100 Australian men who participated in the study, those in their late teens and/or those with less than two years’ partnered sexual experience reported far lower rates of orgasm during their most recent sexual encounter than did older and more experienced men. Nearly all indicated that their orgasms could be achieved via vaginal intercourse, with 80-percent saying that oral sex could also produce orgasm in them. Sexual shame and casual sex encounters were also associated with lower rates of orgasm among the men involved with the study.

The 9,100 women who spoke by telephone with researchers from Sussex University, England, and the universities of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia , however, told a different kind of story. Conversations with the Australian women, aged from 16 to 59, revealed that only half of them experienced orgasms during intercourse, although 70-percent of them found manual or oral stimulation effective.

As with men, women in their late teens were far less orgasmic than older women — although those in their 50s also reported lower rates of orgasm.

What the “Sexual Practices at Last Heterosexual Encounter and Occurrence of Orgasm in a National Survey” uncovered, was that women who had achieved higher levels of financial independence and academic achievement were more likely to identify themselves as orgasmic. Further, women who had intercourse more than twice a week during the survey period or used toys, were more likely to experience orgasm.

Perhaps surprisingly to some was the revelation that the ability to experience orgasm did not appear have any relation to how long the women had been sexually active, whether they become sexually active prior to the age of 16, how many partners they had ever had, whether they looked at internet or video pornography, or masturbated.

According to the researchers, “The association between orgasm and demographic characteristics suggest a social-effect, with better-educated, non-immigrant women more likely to have orgasms.” Additionally, and of special importance to those in areas where the devices are illegal or their number limited by law, “Use of sex toys and orgasm in women may indicate a link between orgasm and sexual interest or adventurousness.”