Who lies about their sex lives? Men? Women? Apparently both. This was the finding of a new study done by experts from the Ohio State University that probed into how both genders handle awkward sexual interrogation from a partner.
The research published in the pages of Sex Roles journal was done by Terri Fisher, a psychology professor. The proponent conducted a survey of 293 college students representing both genders and inquired about their sexual history. The respondents were also asked about their non-sexual activities. The information was correlated to their gender roles.
Fisher found out that both males and females lied about their sexual encounters but they lied in different ways.
The college students anonymously filled out a survey. The male students reported that they lost their virginity at a younger age and had more partners compared to female students.
When asked the same questions while hooked to a fake lie detector, the answers came out differently. The female students revealed that they had more partners than their male counterparts.
Without the polygraph, the male students had the tendency to add one more partner when asked about their sexual history. The female students subtracted one.
"Men and women had different answers about their sexual behavior when they thought they had to be truthful," explained fisher in a press release.
When it comes to non-sexual behaviors, the college students reported accurately and did not feel any kind of pressure to fit into what is expected of their gender.
The stereotyping of gender roles may raise flags when conducting studies about sexuality. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Fished disclosed that men and women tend to hide their real sexual behavior when it does not conform to the typical norm of their gender.
A similar study was conducted by Fisher in 2003. Back then, women disclosed that they had fewer sexual partners compared to men when not connected to a lie detector. When hooked to a polygraph, the number of sexual partners roughly became even.
"Society has changed, even in the past 10 years, and a variety of researchers have found that differences between men and women in some areas of sexual behavior have essentially disappeared," Fisher explained.
The author explained that it is hard to determine if the difference is due to real behavioral changes or just the willingness to disclose certain behavior.
