By Peter Berton
DURHAM, NC – Do men really have as much good sex as they claim? Not according to a study just released by researchers at Duke University.
Published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine under the saucy title “Accuracy of 30-Day Recall for Components of Sexual Function and the Moderating Effects of Gender and Mood,” the study suggests men exaggerate the quality of their sex life, especially when asked weeks after an encounter.
To collect data, researchers tracked 101 men and 101 women over the course of a month. Each day for 30 days, the men and women were asked “to complete daily assessments of their sexual function” on a scale of 1-5. Subjects rated factors including “sexual satisfaction, sexual activities, interest, interfering factors, orgasm, sexual functioning and use of therapeutic aids during the previous 30 days.”
On Day 30, the men and women were asked for an overall assessment of how much sex they’d had during the month and how good the sex was, again using a 1- to 5-point rating system.
The result: On average, retrospective ratings were 0.7 points higher than daily ratings, reflecting a substantial rise when satisfaction was reported from memory. Men inflated their retrospective ratings “a bit more” than women. The researchers concluded gender stereotypes — in this case, an expectation that American men have lots of sex, and most of it is good — contribute to memory recall.
The data also indicated a subject’s mood at the time he or she completed the survey affected ratings: Those who self-reported a good mood at survey time tended to over-report the quality and/or quantity of sexual encounters, while those in a bad mood tended to downplay both frequency and satisfaction.
