The research on sexiness, lustfulness, committedness, and marriage-ness this week is a mixed bag of good, bad and ludicrously ugly. See if you can figure out what’s what, and which ones span all three.
Sweat is sexy: Women can differentiate between men who are turned on and men who aren’t by sniffing their sweat, reports the New York Times.
A survey, reliant on self-reported data we assume, shows that Polish pairs get it on the most of any Europeans, with over 10% of them having sex every. single. day.
That big old study by Larry Young et al just won’t disappear from the news cycle. The latest tidbit? Kissing feels nice because it causes the brain to unleashes stress-reducing chemicals.
The ridiculously uncritical Times of India is reporting on another wrinkle in this research - that Supersmart Scientists will create drugs to make us fall in or out of love. Wrong. We debunked that one a month ago.
But wait! Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, says that kissing is all about mate selection and pair bonding. The cool thing about her research? Her next study “will take place in a secluded room at the back of an academic building with flowers, candles, a sofa and jazz music playing in the background”.
Women’s likelihood of marrying is shaped by race, education levels and economic class. 42% of black women never marry; onyl 21% of white women remain single throughout their lives. The black marriage rate dropped by 34% the last few decades.