There is also a question of whether they are using “average” to refer to mean or median
That’s the first explanation I thought of too, but the article explicitly says “mean average” when referring to women. I can’t imagine that they used the mean for women, and the median for men....
3) enlightening us as to a difference in reporting frequency of men and women.
This. The survey says “Around 10% of both men and women did not answer the questions on
sexual partners.”. If women tended to embarrassed by having too many sexual partners, and men by having too few, this would explain the difference.
For the math to work out, the 10% of women who did not respond would have to have 45 partners, on average. I’m skeptical.
Math: The reported average among men is 9, thus the actual average is at least .9(9) + .1(0) = 8.1. If the missing tenth of women have an average of x partners, the actual overall average is .9(4) + .1(x) = 3.6 + x/10. Setting these equal, we get 8.1 = 3.6 + x/10, which yields x = 45.
You are right—age could be very important—and I didn’t think of it. For example, if men preferred much, much older women, most women in the sample would then have few sexual partners. Both men and women would, by the time they died, have had the same number of (hetero) partnerships on average, but whilst they were alive and around to fill in surveys, the numbers could be quite different.
However, the effect is probably in the wrong direction to help explain the reported difference, women live longer, and men seem to prefer (somewhat) younger women.
There is also a question of whether they are using “average” to refer to mean or median.
That’s the first explanation I thought of too, but the article explicitly says “mean average” when referring to women. I can’t imagine that they used the mean for women, and the median for men....
Ah, then yes, they must be either
1) mistaken,
2) not restricting to heterosexual pairings, or
3) enlightening us as to a difference in reporting frequency of men and women.
Edited to add:
Age could potentially play a role as well?
This. The survey says “Around 10% of both men and women did not answer the questions on sexual partners.”. If women tended to embarrassed by having too many sexual partners, and men by having too few, this would explain the difference.
For the math to work out, the 10% of women who did not respond would have to have 45 partners, on average. I’m skeptical.
Math: The reported average among men is 9, thus the actual average is at least .9(9) + .1(0) = 8.1. If the missing tenth of women have an average of x partners, the actual overall average is .9(4) + .1(x) = 3.6 + x/10. Setting these equal, we get 8.1 = 3.6 + x/10, which yields x = 45.
This creates an ethical dilemma for the scientists performing the study!
You are right—age could be very important—and I didn’t think of it. For example, if men preferred much, much older women, most women in the sample would then have few sexual partners. Both men and women would, by the time they died, have had the same number of (hetero) partnerships on average, but whilst they were alive and around to fill in surveys, the numbers could be quite different.
However, the effect is probably in the wrong direction to help explain the reported difference, women live longer, and men seem to prefer (somewhat) younger women.