Liam ([info]heptadecagram) wrote in [info]mathsex,
@ 2007-07-31 14:59:00
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83% of undergraduate (thanks, [info]madcaptenor) students in math are virgins

That recent post, about how smart is sexy? Totally wrong.

Each additional point of IQ increased the odds of virginity by 2.7% for males and 1.7% for females.

A pretty neat study on how smarter people seem to have less sex and sexual activity.


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[info]tiwonge
2007-07-31 07:06 pm UTC (link)
Sex is stupid.

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[info]madcaptenor
2007-07-31 07:17 pm UTC (link)
Interesting...

but the article actually claims 83% of undergraduate students in math at Wellesley are virgins. And Wellesley is a women's school, which means that this entire population is female. Furthermore, the town of Wellesley is somewhat isolated if you don't have a car, so from what I understand a lot of the social life there is on campus; if you define "virgin" in a heterosexual way, that reduces the opportunity that Wellesley students of any major have to have sex. (Note that the Counterpoint article says 29% of MIT math majors were virgins)

and the MIT/Wellesley publication cited there, Counterpoint, is in general full of crap. (I went to MIT.)

Finally, given the sample size, I strongly suspect that their "83%" is ten out of twelve, or five out of six, and their "29%" is two out of seven or four out of fourteen.

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[info]czarandy
2007-07-31 10:12 pm UTC (link)
"Further, only 65% of MIT graduate students have had sex."

Hmm...

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[info]davidlurie
2007-07-31 10:43 pm UTC (link)
The Counterpoint figures on masturbation indicate that their figures should be treated as fiction.

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[info]madcaptenor
2007-07-31 10:46 pm UTC (link)
I was thinking that too, but then again MIT could be so far from average that that alone doesn't cause me to dismiss their findings out of hand.

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[info]davidlurie
2007-08-01 12:40 am UTC (link)
Besides, I personally have had sex with more than 17% of the math grad students at MIT.


...ok, that's a shameless lie.

Speaking of sex and math, female math grads totally intimidate me, not just because they're girls, but because I automatically assume they're way smarter than me.

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[info]vvvexation
2007-07-31 07:43 pm UTC (link)
Even if the numbers are accurate, losing one's virginity later in life doesn't necessarily equate to having less sex over the course of one's lifetime. Nor, for that matter, does it mean we don't have better sex on the whole....

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[info]a_invi
2007-07-31 07:57 pm UTC (link)
but does that necessarily make them less desirable..?
having sex and being sexy are 2 different things

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[info]bec_87rb
2007-07-31 09:25 pm UTC (link)
Desirability is so personal and not agreed upon, saying that smart people have less sex because they are not desirable is a useless statement at best.

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[info]mr_kenny
2007-07-31 10:06 pm UTC (link)
saying that smart people have less sex because they are not desirable is a useless statement at best.

Perhaps to claim such things about smart people in absolute terms may not be necessarily helpful. However, I think it reasonable to ask such questions in relative terms. Is any given smart person going to be desired by more or fewer people when compared to a more "average" person? Do smart people generally have less sex because they are generally desired by fewer people, and thus have more limited options? I'm not convinced that questions or statements like that are useless. [By the way, the linked article mentions such possible explanations.]

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[info]madcaptenor
2007-07-31 10:47 pm UTC (link)
Also, smart people might be less desirable to the "average" person... but smart people tend to hang around other smart people!

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[info]technolope
2007-07-31 11:09 pm UTC (link)
And apparently they don't have much sex together.

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[info]ladyperegrine
2007-08-01 01:01 am UTC (link)
Or they're smart enough not to kiss and tell? ;-)

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[info]bec_87rb
2007-08-01 02:16 pm UTC (link)
See, I think it rests on the dubious assumption that women are all one big consumer, that they, for instance, all prefer men with big muscles, so if you have big muscles, you will get laid more easily.

I suspect similarity and familiarity play a big role, actually. The average person is average, per force, and there are lots of them, per force. If a majority of women are looking for men with muscles, then they get together and have more sex with them more often for no other reason than they are average and so numerous. The brains are concomitant, not causal - people are picking partners because they are familiar, like themselves and their friends, and those friends tend to be brains not jocks, or vice versa.

So, the girl who says, "OOO! What muscles, let's go back to my place," may think she is overtly choosing muscles, but is subconsciously selecting a constellation of characteristics with which she is comfortable, and which may be present in men with muscles. And it's hit or miss. Lots of people are charmed by a partner for 3 dates, then realize "He/she is not what I thought, I shall dump him/her." It's because they picked based on certain visual cues which led them to assume facts about the other person, facts that weren't true. But they might have slept with the person already.

There is an opportunity cost to being non-average, because there are fewer partners who are similar to yourself, and who are looking for you.

I just don't think there is an absolute standard of desirability, outside the vagaries of what appeals to the average person.

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[info]mothwentbad
2007-07-31 10:35 pm UTC (link)
Heh, studio art, 0%... It's like, "if you can't even spin your artwork into a one-night stand from time to time, you shouldn't be here."

Sure.

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[info]pyrop
2007-07-31 10:40 pm UTC (link)
CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION!

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[info]davidlurie
2007-07-31 10:44 pm UTC (link)
O RLY?

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[info]lederhosen
2007-08-01 02:45 am UTC (link)
I'm glad somebody caught that. It would be just as reasonable to conclude from this data that you can improve your test scores by spending more time on studying instead of trying to get laid.

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[info]alias_sqbr
2007-07-31 11:42 pm UTC (link)
Yes, but is this because they are choosing to spend less time on frivolous things and more on maths?

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[info]traag
2007-08-01 12:23 am UTC (link)
if some person recited physics formulas to me in a romanticising voice, i'd be all over them like bread on butter. why i find this hot, i don't know. am i the freak?

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[info]chainkill
2007-08-01 12:33 am UTC (link)
Yes, you are a freak, but I refuse to have sex with anyone who isn't. Normal people don't even think fractals are sexy! What's WRONG with them!

The sample size of this study appears to be "people who associated with the authors", and therefore the study was skewed towards people who are more "normal" for that group. I reject all of its findings.

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[info]traag
2007-08-01 12:46 am UTC (link)
;D

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(Anonymous)
2007-08-01 12:55 am UTC (link)
Definitely not a freak! My ex-boyfriend and I had some... passionate physics moments. Haha. (And this is why I logged out to make it anonymous.)

I love nerds...

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[info]traag
2007-08-01 01:13 am UTC (link)
hahah! i know right...why are they so sexy? my ex was HOT when he would explain some basic physics and car part functions to me....*dreamy le sigh*

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[info]pgadey
2007-08-01 01:35 am UTC (link)
I've been seeing a guy who gets turned on when I talk about math and language, my interest he says really shows on my face. Apparently seeing someone really into something, even something you know nothing about can be really sexy.

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[info]traag
2007-08-01 01:41 am UTC (link)
it's true!

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[info]traag
2007-08-01 01:43 am UTC (link)
i think especially when they look like they know what they are talking about. it gives off a very strong presence.

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Enthusiasm IS an aphrodisiac
[info]bec_87rb
2007-08-01 01:51 pm UTC (link)
That is an extremely acute observation.

My husband on our first date took me to an Italian restaurant with a butcher paper tablecloth. Between bites of really terrible pasta, he regaled me with drawings of various types of organic molecules and why they are bad in your drinking water. I could see he was smart and passionate about his job and areas of expertise.

Even now, when we go to a restaurant, if it has those paper covers, we'll have a discussion of something and there will be crayon scribbles. It's endearing. I have even ripped out some especially good ones to take with me.

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[info]thelala
2007-08-01 06:39 am UTC (link)
Maybe if they spent less time doing the puzzles on the back of cereal boxes to prep them for IQ tests, they'd be smart enough to know how to successfully land a mate.

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[info]feartheducks
2007-08-03 02:17 am UTC (link)
I read the Counterpoint article where they got a lot of their stats and my friend found some more information on the study (not sure where, though), but apparently the sample sizes were minuscule, so they really don't hold much merit. Heh, at least I hope not. According to that article, 100% of the graduates from Random Hall graduate virgins; that's where I'll be staying next year :-P haha.

At any rate, the unreliability of Counterpoint doesn't entirely dismiss the reliability of the entire article that the post was referring to, since it did get figures from other sources, I think...didn't it?

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