Research Links High Sex Drive To High IQ, But Brainiacs Still Have Less Sex Than Everyone Else
New research by sex toy retailer Lovehoney found a correlation between high sexual libido and elevated intelligence, but a high sex drive doesn't necessarily mean that super smart people are having more romps in the bedroom. In fact, research suggests just the opposite.
An analysis based on sales figures from Lovehoney found that students from top UK universities spend more on sex toys than others. The Telegraph reports that Lovehoney's sales and website visits indicate a "heightened interest in sex amongst students in the Russell Group of elite universities." In short, the retailer found that students with a high IQ may also have higher-than-normal sex drives.
That assertion is completely plausible...but there is also an alternative explanation.
It's possible that students with high IQs aren't having much sex, resorting to sex toys as a means of achieving sexual gratification. This theory reinforces what researchers have said time and time again for years: people with higher IQs have less sex than everyone else.
"Intelligence is negatively associated with sex frequency," said sociologist Rosemary Hopcroft in a 2011 article for Psychology Today. "It's a bit dismaying."
Hopcroft said that people who have attended higher education institutions are less likely to have sex on a frequent basis and have less sexual partners than those who have not. Her contentions were confirmed by a joint sex survey by MIT and Wellesley College that found that a high IQ can delay sexual activity into early adulthood.
According to a 2007 article entitled "Intercourse and Intelligence," 80 percent of U.S. males and 75 percent of U.S. women have had sex by the age of 19. Compare that to 56 percent of Princeton undergraduates, 59 percent of Harvard undergraduates and 51 percent of MIT undergraduates who report having had sexual intercourse. What's more, only 65 percent of MIT graduate students have had sex.
Smart people having less sex and starting to have sex later in life can be attributable to any number of things. People with higher IQs may take into consideration the negative consequences of risky sexual behavior more than their peers of average intelligence. They could also just be too busy studying and working to find time for sexual relationships with others. Or they could be lacking in good looks.
Science has yet to prove any of these things to be true. Elite students at UK universities don't shy away from talking about sex toys and what their use could mean about intelligence's relation to sex.
"It seems Oxbridge students know that sex and sex toys are the smartest way to relieve sex," said Cambridge University graduate Alice Little. "High achievers aim for excellence in all areas of their life, so it makes sense that achieving sexual happiness is one of their goals."