Isn’t the usual explanation that “having had a lot of partners” is seen as a positive trait for a man, but a negative one for a woman? (or at least, it’s a more desirable/less undesirable trait for a male).
Yeah, but you don’t need to postulate different definitions of sex then; they’re fudging the numbers, and nothing tells you whether they use this parameter to do it. I was proposing a model where people are completely honest and still give different answers.
I read in Cosmo (probably the least reliable source possible) that women often don’t count one-night-stands. No idea how to test.
Different definitions of sex sound like a plausible way of fudging the numbers (I don’t see any other ways of fudging the numbers that aren’t outright lying), and fudging the numbers seems like a good motivation to have different definitions of sex.
The lie detector in the OP makes outright lying seem a bit more plausible though, if it’s true.
Obviously that’s the main implication, and it’s very likely a significant cause of the difference. It’s not necessarily the only one—and if we’re trying to measure that difference, we’ll need to take into account the other causes of differences.
Isn’t the usual explanation that “having had a lot of partners” is seen as a positive trait for a man, but a negative one for a woman? (or at least, it’s a more desirable/less undesirable trait for a male).
Yeah, but you don’t need to postulate different definitions of sex then; they’re fudging the numbers, and nothing tells you whether they use this parameter to do it. I was proposing a model where people are completely honest and still give different answers.
I read in Cosmo (probably the least reliable source possible) that women often don’t count one-night-stands. No idea how to test.
Testing is pretty easy. You split your group into two.
One group get’s asked: How many sexual partners did you have in your life?
The other group get’s asked: “How many sexual partners did you have in your life, if you don’t count one-night-stands?”
Three. Third group gets “counting one-night-stands”.
Different definitions of sex sound like a plausible way of fudging the numbers (I don’t see any other ways of fudging the numbers that aren’t outright lying), and fudging the numbers seems like a good motivation to have different definitions of sex.
The lie detector in the OP makes outright lying seem a bit more plausible though, if it’s true.
Obviously that’s the main implication, and it’s very likely a significant cause of the difference. It’s not necessarily the only one—and if we’re trying to measure that difference, we’ll need to take into account the other causes of differences.