Do we lie about the number of sexual intercourse?

How many sexual partners of the opposite sex have you had during your life ? In theory the answer to this question should be the same, on average, for any group of men or women. However, the results of most surveys in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries show that men report having two to four times more sexual partners than female partners . Do men lie to increase their sexual reputation, or are women lying while trying to reduce the volume of their sexual experience?

Psychologist Norman R. Brown, from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, says that most men and women do not consciously lie about their sexual relationships. According to the expert, the reason for the numerical discrepancy is the differences in the methods used by men and women to calculate the number of sexual partners. Specifically, Brown says, the women's method is based on enumeration . "They have the tendency to say" of course I know, "and if asked for an explanation they will say" Well, it was Juan, Tomás, etc. ", a strategy that underestimates the numbers," according to the expert. By contrast, according to Brown, men are "twice as likely to use a numerical approximation to answer the question." And it has been shown that the approximation is a strategy that tends to produce an overestimation .