Practicing good sex makes us happier. Some people may have had some intuition about this statement. In fact, until now there have already been some investigations that pointed in that sense.
A 2004 study of some 16,000 North American participants found that happiness was positively correlated with sexual activity, at least in that country.
However, one of the criticisms made of that study was that, beyond the relationship between both variables, it was not possible to know if it was sexual activity that produced happiness or if it happened the other way around, that is, if the happiest people were those who had the most sex.
To delve deeper into these issues, Zhiming Cheng and Russell Smyth, two researchers from different Australian universities, carried out a study with 3,800 adults from China, with the intention of finding out what the relationship between sex and happiness is like in a population different from the North American.
They were given a survey in which they were asked a question similar to this: “In general, how would you say things are going for you these days – would you say that you are very happy, happy, unhappy or very unhappy?” In addition, their sexual activity was explored with questions about the frequency with which they had sex, the number of sexual partners and the satisfaction obtained with sex.
The results, recently published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2015), showed that those individuals who had more and better quality sex (assessed in terms of emotional and physical satisfaction with their sexual partner) were happier.
In addition, and possibly shocking to some, the researchers found that the number of sexual partners that maximized happiness was only one, which means that the more sexual partners, the less happiness obtained. In fact, they found that getting involved in extramarital affairs was negatively related to happiness.
Finally, the data showed that engaging in ‘unwilling’ or unwanted sex was also related to feeling less happy in both men and women.
Conclusion: sex, in addition to being a distraction in some situations like driving, is important for a happy life, although not just any sex is worth it, its quality also counts. Do not get lost and also take care of that facet of your life.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
