Guide to Getting it On: Have More Sex Than Your Neighbors, Sexual Frequency Increases Happiness

It's nobody's business but you and your honeys', but truth be told, there's a certain satisfaction from knowing that your love life may be just a bit hotter than your friends, right?

Well, according to a recent study on sex and our sense of well-being, truth be told, in fact, that's just the case.

An associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, Tim Wadsworth, who recently published the results of a study on how sexual frequency corresponds with happiness, gives us the dirty on why sex is like keeping up with the Joneses. To give it to you straight, the study confirms that sexual frequency corresponds with happiness.

Looking at data from a national survey, Wadsworth found that people report steadily higher levels of happiness when they have a steady sex life. Yet, he also found that even after controlling their own sexual frequency, people who believed they were having less sex than their peers were unhappier than those who believed they were having as much or more than their peers.

"There's an overall increase in sense of well-being that comes with engaging in sex more frequently, but there's also this relative aspect to it," he said. "Having more sex makes us happy, but thinking that we are having more sex than other people makes us even happier."

Wadsworth analyzed data from the General Social Survey, which has been taking the "pulse of America" since 1972. All respondents in all years are asked whether they are "very happy, pretty happy or not too happy."

The survey has included questions about sexual frequency since 1989. Wadsworth's sample included 15,386 people who were surveyed between 1993 and 2006.

After controlling for many other factors, including income, education, marital status, health, age, race and other characteristics, respondents who reported having sex at least two to three times a month were 33 percent more likely to report a higher level of happiness than those who reported having no sex during the previous 12 months.

The happiness effect appears to rise with frequency. For those who didn't have any or no sex during the previous year, those reporting a once-weekly frequency were 44 percent more likely to have a higher happiness level. Those who reported having sex two to three times a week are 55 percent more likely to report a higher level of happiness.

But while researchers note that personal income can be inferred by a neighbor's flashy new car or home renovation, sex is a more cloistered activity. So how do, say, men or women in their 20s know how frequently their peers have sex?

As sex tends to be more private, friends and the mass media can provide insights and more specific clues that gives glimpses into the bedroom, including Cosmopolitan, Glamor, Mens health, Men's Journal, and the AARP Magazine. 

Television and film depictions might also play a role, and, Wadsworth writes, "there is plenty of evidence that information concerning normative sexual behavior is learned through discussions within peer groups and friendship networks."

His paper, "Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness: How Other People's Sex Lives are Related to Our Sense of Well-Being," was published in the February edition of Social Indicators Research.