OK Cupid Tries Out Social Science

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Okcupid.com, the popular free dating website geared towards college students, recently released an interesting article titled Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex. The post seemed to be in response to the recent publicity of gay bashing and bullying in the media. The bloggers described their motivation behind the study as wanting to “provide some data-based context on sexuality so that people might make better choices about what they say, think, and do”. The article is definitely worth a read, especially since it’s filled with some really telling graphs and charts.

Here are the higlights:

  • the median reported sex partners remained the same regardless of gender and/or sexual orientation (i.e., no one gender/sexual orientation is more “promiscuous”)
  • 45% of gay people have had 5 or fewer partners (vs. 44% for straights)
  • 98% of gay people have had 20 or fewer partners (vs. 99% for straights)
  • this image:

    Stuff Lesbians Like....image courtesy of okcupid.com

    For more data and awesome graphs/images, go read the article.

About Michaela

Michaela

Michaela is a senior in college studying human sexuality and anthropology. When she's not blogging, you'll catch her crafting, cooking, or working at impish, a baby boutique. She hopes to one day be a professor of feminist anthropology/sexuality studies.

  • Kate

    Thanks for bringing attention to this article, Michaela! It was very interesting and I’m pleased to see some stereotype dismantling, like the one you mentioned about gay people and #of partners.

    I only wish that number of sexual partners (perceived or real) didn’t influence how people treat a population. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could move beyond that as a culture?

  • Michaela

    Kate,
    I agree. I definitely appreciated the article from a somewhat comedic standpoint. The data, while true, is definitely poking fun at heteronormative stereotypes and whatnot. I just loved the graphs and pictures!