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British men think young women have sex 22 times a month

In reality, the average young British woman has sex five times a month

Rachel Hosie
Thursday 20 September 2018 14:02 BST
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British men have a particularly skewed idea of how much sex young women are having, according to new research.

Men in the UK think women aged between 18 and 29 have sex 22 times a month on average - a far cry from the actual five sexual encounters British women are having each month.

The research, carried out by Ipsos as part of its ‘Perils of Perceptions’ study which has been “exploring the gap between people’s perceptions and the reality since 2012”, found that this false impression of women’s sexual activity is mostly driven by younger men.

Men under the age of 35 think young women are having sex 33 times a month on average, compared to “just” 14 times a month in the eyes of older men.

Women, however are slightly closer to reality, guessing that females aged 18-29 are having sex 12 times a month.

When it comes to how often young British men are having sex, the reality is the same as women at five times a month on average. Both genders guessed that men were having more though - women thought young males had sex 14 times a month, with men guessing just one higher at 15.

Professor of public policy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London and lead study author Bobby Duffy believes there are two possible explanations for men’s skewed idea of how much sex women are having.

“Both are related to what we’re told by the media and broader cultural cues, as well as how we think, and the biases and tricks our brains play on us,” she wrote for The Independent.

“Men’s massive errors are, therefore, likely to be due to a twisted mental image drawn from the representation of women in the media, entertainment, advertising and myriad other cultural cues, combined with men’s own fragile egos, thinking that women are having more sex than them.”

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