The truth must be in here somewhere: Examining the gender discrepancy in self‐reported lifetime number of sex partners

Abstract

One of the most consistent and troubling findings in sexuality research is that men report a substantially greater number of sexual intercourse partners compared to women. In a population that is more or less closed and is comprised of approximately equal proportions of men and women, such a finding is illogical. In the current article, I review the primary explanations that have been offered for this gender discrepancy and review the relevant data that exist for each explanation. Afterwards, I present data from two studies in which I further explored the apparent gender discrepancy and factors that may account for it. The first study involved a sample of college students (N = 324), whereas the second study was based on a nationally representative sample of adults (N = 2,524; 1994 General Social Survey, Davis & Smith, 1994). In Study 1, accounting for a lack of inclusion of casual sex partners and for self‐rated dishonesty in reporting did not affect the gender discrepancy in lifetime number of sex partners, whereas correcting for the ratio of men versus women on campus did to a small degree. Only correcting for self‐rated inaccuracy eliminated the gender discrepancy. In Study 2, removing those respondents who had participated in prostitution reduced the gender discrepancy somewhat. However, the gender discrepancy appeared to be driven primarily by men's greater tendency to report large, “round” numbers of partners. The results are discussed with regard to possible explanations for greater distortion in men's estimates of lifetime sex partners compared to women's estimates, directions for further investigation are suggested, and recommendations are provided for researchers who ask respondents to report lifetime number of sex partners.