Do Intelligent People Really Have More Sex?

If you have more sex than your neighbours, treat yourself to the occasional sneaky joint and stay up watching TV until late at night, it might mean that you are one of the more intelligent members of our species. According to the British online magazine Esquire, this has now been scientifically proven. The headline "Smarter people stay up later, do more drugs and have more sex.

It’s science.” did the rounds in Esquire magazine in 2014. Translated, the title means: "Smarter people stay up later, do more drugs and have more sex. It’s science." However, on closer inspection, the whole thing is not as scientific as the title suggests.

Elite students and their sex toys

The British magazine drew the conclusion that smarter people are more active in the bedroom from the following study: The UK-based online retailer Lovehoney commissioned a study to find out the consumer behaviour of British students when it comes to purchasing sex toys.

The study evaluated sales figures and analysed data provided by students of various elite universities. Oxford and Cambridge came top in the study. They spent more money on vibrators, soft bondage gear etc. than students from other universities. However, this was not about comparing the IQ’s of kinky consumers.

Also, the study does not reveal just what the Oxford and Cambridge students get up with the sex toys they have bought. Lovehoney themselves only took the results of the study as proof that people with a higher IQ, an elite IQ, are more curious, open and adventurous in the bedroom than those who only made it to normal universities.

Psychoactive Drugs - Pushing our own limits

This statement seems to have a bit more truth to it. Here, Esquire is referring to a study by the social psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa. In studies, it was shown that people with high IQ (125 and above) tend to use drugs more frequently than less intelligent people.

The reason is this: The smarter someone is, the more risks they take. Also, as IQ increases, so does the need to push your own boundaries, including the boundaries of perception.

If people show above-average intelligence in childhood, they are up to 50% more likely to have smoked a joint or to have done a line of cocaine by the age of 30. This was the result of a long-term study.

Are You An Owl or a Lark? - Smart people stay up later

The fact is that owls are usually smarter than larks.

This means:

People with a higher IQ go to sleep later than less intelligent people. This was the conclusion of researchers who, also in a long-term study, studied when US high school students went to bed. The reason is similar to the one in the drug study - going against the flow.

However, the smarter high school kids did not sleep less overall. They made up for the sleep they had missed with a lie-in at the weekend. So, Esquire was not wrong about everything. Smarter people do go to bed later and like to experiment with drugs. Whether they have more sex, however, remains unclear.

Maybe they have better sex, since they are more open to new things and are not afraid of unusual sex toys. It will probably take another study to find this out.

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