8 ms·

Wait, how is that even mathematically possible? Most people are heterosexual and there is roughly the same number of men and women. Are you saying that there is

Wait, how is that even mathematically possible? Most people are heterosexual and there is roughly the same number of men and women. Are you saying that there is a small cohort of men that have sex with most of the women? I find it hard to believe — most people, men and women, are monogamous.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
Metrics like this tend to binary outcomes like "had sex within the past n months" not total quantity of sex. They also get distorted because young men are in part losing out to older men. I think the differences are mostly overblown.
embeng4096 5y ago
One possible explanation is that, as you say, "most people" are monogamous -- the rest are a group of men who have more partners drawn from the same group of women (excluding the monogamous women), and a group of men who are not having partners at all. See this article [0] discussing a study, and specifically this quote in it which I think reconciles both your point and the GP's: > Most women and men reported at least weekly sex, and most people reported having one sexual partner in the prior year. In the most recent surveys, men age 18 to 44 were more likely to have had no partners in the past year (16 percent) compared to women (12 percent). Men also were more likely to have had three or more partners in the past year (15 percent) compared to women (7 percent). [0]: https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/releases/15-sexual-inactivity-young-men-united-states-no-sex-debby-herbenick.html https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/releases/15-sexual-i...
walkhour 5y ago
This wouldn't be so strange, pareto distributions are everywhere. Apparently this could be the case in Tinder, if we believe this Tweet [0] [0] https://mobile.twitter.com/quillette/status/1105679979256389634 https://mobile.twitter.com/quillette/status/1105679979256389...
rglullis 5y ago
> I find it hard to believe — most people, men and women, are monogamous. You are forgetting the 4th dimension.
bradlys 5y ago
> Wait, how is that even mathematically possible? Most people are heterosexual and there is roughly the same number of men and women. Men:women are born at 107:100. There are about 7% more men than women in the world at birth. This only evens out by age 40. This is due to suicide rates among men being wildly higher. Most men and women are monogamous - but many people date. A few men sleep with many women. Many men never see a date or any sex. 25% of men will be childless. 15% of women will be childless. It should get kinda obvious how this works even with a monogamous society. Women can get sex when they want and not commit to someone even in a monogamous society. The attractive men can choose to be non-committal and sleep with many women. Eventually - many women will commit to a man but it will be to a man who had very few partners whereas the woman might've slept with many of the men who get to sleep with many women. Basically - the idea is that a small subset of men are sleeping with all the women. The women might settle down eventually but they will inevitably settle down with a man who did not have many sexual partners.
- bigthymer 5y ago
  > This only evens out by age 40 I've read 18 but I forget the source.
  - bradlys 5y ago
    You could just Google it and you’d find out. Because you’re definitely wrong.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Men:women are born at 107:100 107:100 is either the high end of the range or outside of the range, depending on which estimate you look at. 105:100 seems to be closer to mid-range. [0] > This only evens out by age 40. Globally, it's actually closer to 50. [1] In particular countries this varies a lot from the global average, and, yes, the US is around 40. [2] > This is due to suicide rates among men being wildly higher. No, it's not. Boys have significantly higher infant mortality and males have higher rates of violent (even excluding suicide) and accidental death at all age ranges. Suicide isn't the main differentiating factor. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio [1] https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/world-sex-ratio.php https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/world-sex-ratio.php [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the...

spywaregorilla 5y ago

Metrics like this tend to binary outcomes like "had sex within the past n months" not total quantity of sex. They also get distorted because young men are in part losing out to older men. I think the differences are mostly overblown.

embeng4096 5y ago

One possible explanation is that, as you say, "most people" are monogamous -- the rest are a group of men who have more partners drawn from the same group of women (excluding the monogamous women), and a group of men who are not having partners at all. See this article [0] discussing a study, and specifically this quote in it which I think reconciles both your point and the GP's: > Most women and men reported at least weekly sex, and most people reported having one sexual partner in the prior year. In the most recent surveys, men age 18 to 44 were more likely to have had no partners in the past year (16 percent) compared to women (12 percent). Men also were more likely to have had three or more partners in the past year (15 percent) compared to women (7 percent). [0]: https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/releases/15-sexual-inactivity-young-men-united-states-no-sex-debby-herbenick.html https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/releases/15-sexual-i...

walkhour 5y ago

This wouldn't be so strange, pareto distributions are everywhere. Apparently this could be the case in Tinder, if we believe this Tweet [0] [0] https://mobile.twitter.com/quillette/status/1105679979256389634 https://mobile.twitter.com/quillette/status/1105679979256389...

rglullis 5y ago

> I find it hard to believe — most people, men and women, are monogamous. You are forgetting the 4th dimension.

bradlys 5y ago

> Wait, how is that even mathematically possible? Most people are heterosexual and there is roughly the same number of men and women. Men:women are born at 107:100. There are about 7% more men than women in the world at birth. This only evens out by age 40. This is due to suicide rates among men being wildly higher. Most men and women are monogamous - but many people date. A few men sleep with many women. Many men never see a date or any sex. 25% of men will be childless. 15% of women will be childless. It should get kinda obvious how this works even with a monogamous society. Women can get sex when they want and not commit to someone even in a monogamous society. The attractive men can choose to be non-committal and sleep with many women. Eventually - many women will commit to a man but it will be to a man who had very few partners whereas the woman might've slept with many of the men who get to sleep with many women. Basically - the idea is that a small subset of men are sleeping with all the women. The women might settle down eventually but they will inevitably settle down with a man who did not have many sexual partners.

bigthymer 5y ago
> This only evens out by age 40 I've read 18 but I forget the source.
- bradlys 5y ago
  You could just Google it and you’d find out. Because you’re definitely wrong.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Men:women are born at 107:100 107:100 is either the high end of the range or outside of the range, depending on which estimate you look at. 105:100 seems to be closer to mid-range. [0] > This only evens out by age 40. Globally, it's actually closer to 50. [1] In particular countries this varies a lot from the global average, and, yes, the US is around 40. [2] > This is due to suicide rates among men being wildly higher. No, it's not. Boys have significantly higher infant mortality and males have higher rates of violent (even excluding suicide) and accidental death at all age ranges. Suicide isn't the main differentiating factor. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio [1] https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/world-sex-ratio.php https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/world-sex-ratio.php [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the...