Sex is the most pleasurable, joyous, and meaningful human experience
A study by Grimma et al. (2015) was conducted to investigate and further elucidate on the concept of happiness and investigate what activities provide meaning and pleasure to people's lives depending on the individuals orientation to happiness (OTH). The concept of happiness was divided by the authors into the two theories of happiness held by the Ancient Greeks—hedonic happiness (minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure) and/or eudaimonia (a sense of 'meaning' and fulfillment).
The subjects (N = 173; young university students) completed an initial questionnaire explaining the study and the concepts of happiness. Afterwards, at random intervals, they received text messages from the researchers querying them on the current activity they were engaged in, how happy they were, and how pleasurable, meaningful and engaging said activity was.
Sex was rated as the happiest, and most pleasurable, meaningful, and engaging activity.
It was also found that time spent with one's partner/spouse was rated as the happiest and most pleasurable social contact, very similar to time spent with friends (p. 87).
Discussion:
This replicates several other daily activity studies that also found sex to be the most pleasurable experience (as cited in Grimm, 2014: e.g. Kahneman et al., 2004; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Robinson & Godbey, 1997).
Also some of the other highly rated activities are associated with sex in the sense of potentially leading up to it (partying, socializing) and the high meaningfulness and joy of sex may "rub off" on these activities as pleasant anticipation. This is certainly predicted from a Darwinian perspective as everything conductive to
reproductive success/fitness should evolve to be pleasurable. Childcare is of course also conductive to fitness (parental investment).
Related to this, in a French survey, 68.8% of men (N = 8,948) and 59.5% of women (N = 11,098) said that "sexual intercourse is essential to feeling good about oneself" (Bajos, 2010). Hence, men significantly care more about their active sexual status (X² = 177.1, p < 0.0001, d ≈ 0.25). Percentages around 60-70% in modern, liberal countries stating sex being beneficial for “general health and well being” was also found in a global survey of 26,032 participants across 26 countries funded by Durex© (Wylie, 2009).
In all of these reports of daily activity, it is plausible that people did not answer truthfully and downplay their joy of sex in order to avoid being seen as unsophisticated and sex-driven (
social desirability bias).
Administering cohabiting couples to have more sex
does not make them happier. Naturally occurring increases in sexual frequency and satisfaction over time, however,
do predict corresponding increases in life satisfaction.
Quotes:
- Sex/making love was the highest rated behavior on all dimensions in this dataset, consistent with several other daily activity studies (Kahneman et al., 2004; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Robinson & Godbey, 1997).
References:
- Grimm C, Kemp S, Jose PE. 2014. Orientations to happiness and the experience of everyday activities. The Journal of Positive Psychology. 10(3): 207-218. [Abstract] [FullText]
- Bajos N, et al. 2010. Changes in sexual behaviours: from secular trends topublic health policies. [Abstract] [FullText]
- Wylie K. 2009. A Global Survey of Sexual Behaviours. [FullText]
