For the first time, researchers have conducted a study that measures the value of sex in dollars.
According to the findings, couples who engage in sex at least four times a month bring themselves a measure of happiness equal to US$49,000 dollars a year compared with couples who have sex only once a month.
The measure was derived through a complicated calculation that converted so-called units of happiness into dollars. The result supported a central finding of the research: Nothing makes adults -- regardless of gender or age -- as happy as sex.
The two authors -- David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Andrew Oswald of Warwick University in Britain -- used statistical analysis to evaluate data from a group of 16,000 adult Americans surveyed from 1988 to 2002. Their paper, titled Money, Sex and Happiness, was published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The researchers admitted that the bureau, known for determining recessions and US business cycles, is an unusual place for the study of sex, but they are engaged in an emerging branch of economics aimed at determining what makes people happy.
This interests economist because they reckon more happiness could lead to a stronger economy by reducing healthcare costs and increasing productivity.
The study is the first to examine whether there is a direct link between income and sex, Blanchflower said. The results, which hold true for both men and women, surprised the researchers.
"Most surprising for us was that money does not buy sex," Blanchflower said.
"Rich people have exactly as much or exactly as little sex as poor people," he said.
The results confirmed what US economic scientist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman already determined in a study of women in Texas.
Asked what ordinary activities in daily life brought the most pleasure, the majority of the 909 women in that study chose sex.
"The influence of one's love life on happiness is statistically clearly provable -- and large," Blanchflower and Oswald wrote in their paper. They also said that the least fun activity for both men and women is their commutes to work.
More partners also don't result in more happiness, the paper found. Ninety percent of the participants, whether well-heeled or hard up for cash, were happy with one person.
And men who sought sexual adventures with prostitutes were clearly less happy than those who didn't.
The researchers also found that the media exaggerates the sex life of Americans.
"According to our data, Americans have less dramatic sex lives than might have been imagined from television and other media," Blanchflower and Oswald said. The finding that married couples have more hours in bed than singles, divorced people or widows, was expected.
On average Americans have sex two to three times per month, the paper said. Only one in 10 under the age of 40 had sex more than four times a week. Just as many people had no sex. The frequency of sex was about the same for gay men and lesbians.
The only factor that apparently made a difference was education. According to the analysis, men with the highest level of education have slightly less sex than other less males.
As for US women, the highly educated are very selective in choosing a partner, and they change partners or husbands less frequently than other women, the study found.
Longtime bachelors and men who are separated from their wives showed more desire to switch partners. Likewise, unemployed people apparently seek confirmation by sleeping around, the researchers said.
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