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Sex may be happiness, but wealth isn't sexiness
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-15 17:14
Roverbially, money buys neither love nor happiness, only sex. ("Success in
the boardroom guarantees success in the bedroom.") But nobody ever tried to
prove it.
Recently, however, two economists, David G. Blanchflower of Dartmouth College
and Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England, submitted a
working paper called "Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study," to the
National Bureau of Economic Research, one of the leading organizations in its
field.
The authors say their study is first rigorous econometric analysis on the
topic, and it that the received wisdom may require some revision. As the paper
states: "Money does seem to seem to buy greater happiness. But it does not buy
more sex."
Mr. Blanchflower and Mr. Oswald are among the leaders in the fast-growing
field of "happiness economics," which applies econometric techniques,
traditionally limited to quantifiable matters like wage rates, to the amorphous
arena of human emotion. Areas of research include how happiness is affected by
democracy (it increases individual happiness), or new cigarette taxes (smokers,
oddly, become happier).
In their study, Mr. Oswald and Mr. Blanchflower analyzed the self-reported
sexual activity and levels of happiness of more than 16,000 American adults who
participated in a number of social surveys since the early 1990's. (Happiness is
notoriously difficult to define, and the surveys make no attempt to do so; the
respondents simply record how happy they believe themselves to be on a sliding
scale.) By factoring out the measurable effects of other life events, the study
revealed, to no one's surprise, that, "The more sex, the happier the person."
Furthermore, the economists compared the levels of happiness produced by a
vigorous sex life with other activities whose economic values had been
calculated in prior research, allowing them to impute, in dollars, how much
happiness sex was worth. They also estimated that increasing the frequency of
sexual intercourse from once a month to at least once a week provided as much
happiness as putting $50,000 in the bank.
A lasting marriage, by comparison, offers about $100,000 worth of happiness a
year - that is, on average, a single person would need to receive $100,000
annually to be as happy as a married person with the same education, job status
and other characteristics. Divorce, on the other hand, imposes an emotional toll
of about $66,000 a year, though there may be a short-term economic gain from the
immediate relief provided by leaving your spouse.
Possibly the least expected finding of the paper, said Mr. Oswald, was that
in general, "Greater income does not buy more sex, nor sexual partners."
"That was surprising to us as economists," Mr. Oswald added, "because by and
large, we think money can buy anything." (The study found that men who paid a
prostitute for sex reported they were considerably less happy.)
But the economists' study struck at a number of conventionally accepted
notions. "The conservative, pro-marriage lobby will be delighted to read our
paper," Mr. Oswald said. "The 'Sex and the City' view of the world is falsified
by the data."
Married people, he said, were shown to have about 30 percent more sex than
their single peers, and were found, at least statistically speaking, to be
significantly happier.
Likewise, Mr. Oswald said, the gay and lesbian community would be happy with
the work. The data showed that the amount of happiness obtained from "being in a
gay relationship is almost identical to being in a heterosexual one" and that
regardless of sexual orientation, the "happiness-maximizing" number of partners
is one. Celibacy and very low levels of sexual activity, the study found, had a
"statistically indistinguishable" effect on happiness.
Not everyone is convinced one can put an accurate price tag on sex - or at
least its emotional payoff. "Does it matter if it is good sex or bad sex? To me
that is of critical importance," said Leonore Tiefer, a clinical therapist and
associate professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine.
Then there is the problem of distinguishing cause from effect. "Is your sex
life good because you are seeing life through rose-colored glasses?" asked
Edward O. Laumann, a University of Chicago sociology professor who directed the
1994 National Health and Social Life Survey, a landmark study on sexual
attitudes and behaviors in the United States. "Or is your happiness a result of
your sex life?" And what about the lurking variable of love?
Mr. Oswald concedes the limitations of his statistical analysis. "All we can
do is paint outlines of the numbers," he said. "We can't hope to pick up a
myriad of details." However, he said a statistical approach can be useful in
flushing out evidence that would be difficult to otherwise obtain - especially
when it comes to a topic like sex, where there is a strong incentive to lie.
He said he would like to carry out more highly detailed, longitudinal and
cross-culture studies, but behavioral lab experiments remain out of the question
now. "It would be great to assign Mr. and Mrs. X a certain amount of sexual
activity and a certain amount of income, and see how it impacts their
happiness," he said. "But I think it would be hard to get government
funding."
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