Originally posted by DArtagnan at 12-5-2015 10:11
The study is nuts. They're looking in the wrong place: studying couple's happiness has already been done, and (they're correct) it was proven 20 years ago that it's nothing to do with sex ... so they basically wasted their time...
As an economist, I would agree. The study was flawed from the get-go...
People adopt behaviors because they are comfortable. These couples had the amount of sex they did because they found that level worked well for them... in economists' lingo, they optimized their sex life to maximize happiness. The researchers asked them to depart from behaviors with which they were comfortable and adopt different behaviors. It's pretty much a given that if someone more or less forces you to change behavior you will not feel better off. In essence, they asked these couples to move away from their optimum... By definition, they would be worse off.
Conversely, if they had asked couples to have less sex, they would also have been less happy. Would the study then have concluded that having less sex makes you less happy?
Have fun, CGP |
