Here’s some vital information for your everyday life: People who have more sex are much, much happier than those of us who aren’t knocking boots at every opportunity. But is it the sex that’s making all your more amorous friends happier or is it something else? Could it be that it’s not the actual act of consummating passion that drives themto feel better about themselves, their lives, and their general well-being?
Turns out it is something else. According to a new study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, people actually feel happier not because they have more sex, but because of the increase in affection that sex provides. To find this result, the researchers — from The University of Fribourg — spoke to over 400 people who were in relationships at the time of the study. The subjects were asked about their sex lives and overall states of happiness and satisfaction. They were also asked about what kind of role “affectionate touch” played in their relationship.
What’s ‘affectionate touch’? Independent explains it as a very unsexy way to describe hugging, kissing, cuddling and all those other things that we tend to do with our partners that are physical but not physical, if you know what we’re saying.
After researchers looked at the results and investigated how “affectionate touch” in relationships affects one’s overall states of well-being, they found that all that hugging and kissing was the actual bridge between sex and happiness, not the actual groaning and thrusting of literal fornication.
Here’s what Anik Debrot, a researcher on the study, said about that connectian:
When engaging in sex, people not only seek an intimate connection, but indeed experience more affection, both when having sex and in the next several hours.
Hence sex seems not only beneficial because of its physiological or hedonic effects, but because it promotes a stronger and more positive connection with the partner.
Definitely something to think about the next time you’re on Tinder! “Yo, I’m DTF, but can we cuddle after?”
