Your personality plays a big part in how much you enjoy sex. Or, in particular, a woman’s personality in a newlywed marriage does, reports Science of Us.
In a new study at Florida State University, two psychologists asked 278 heterosexual, newlywed couples to keep daily diaries of when they had sex and how much they enjoyed it (on a scale of one-to-seven, if sex can possibly be rated that way). The researchers also asked the 20-something and 30-something year old couples to take the Big Five personality test.
This test measures the “Big Five” traits, which are openness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. In simpler terms, that is how much you want adventure, how much you enjoy hanging out with other people, how you respond to tough situations, how timely you are, and how much you want to please other people, respectively.
The study found that only the wife’s personality played a major role in how often the couple has sex. The higher she scored on agreeableness or openness, the more often that… well, you know. Interestingly enough, the husband’s personality didn’t play a role here at all. This contributes to the theory that most men want sex more often than women, making women “gatekeepers” of sex.
Satisfaction, however, was another story.
Each partner’s satisfaction had nothing to do with their spouse’s personality and everything to do with their own. Higher levels of neuroticism equaled lower levels of satisfaction. In other words, the worse you react to tough situations, the less you enjoy sex. Looks like there’s always a reason to be optimistic!
Strangely enough, a husband’s openness correlated negatively with satisfaction. The more open and adventurous the dude in the relationship was, the less he enjoyed having sex with his wife. Maybe he’s a little too adventurous?
Although the results are pretty interesting, don’t take them too seriously in your own relationship. Because the study was so narrow, it can’t be applied to every couple ever to exist. If the researchers really want significant results, then they will need to run the study with couples of all ages, sexual orientations and at all relationship stages. For now, newlyweds who need a little help in their sex life can look to both their own and their partners’ personalities.