Furthermore, our estimations provide evidence that openness to experience is a positive determinant of being a good sex partner and fulfilling the partner’s sexual needs and desires. This suggests that an open person is more able to take into account the partner’s sexual preferences. Our results also show that openness to experience contributes to improved sexual communication. It is positively associated with expressing preferences during sex and the ability of expressing sexual needs and desires in general. This indicates that a person who is more open to the partner’s sexual preferences has better opportunities to communicate his or her preferences to the partner. In contrast to extraversion, we find no evidence that openness to experience is associated with extradyadic affairs. Thus, our analysis provides no evidence that openness to experience has an influence on commitment problems or the person’s outside options.
Conclusions
In this study, we have developed an economics-based approach to the role personality plays in people’s sex life. Personality not only shapes a person’s preferences for sex. It also shapes a person’s behavior in a sexual relationship. This behavior has an influence on the quality and quantity of sex and, hence, on the sexual well-being of the person and his or her partner. Personality shapes sexual communication and information sharing, the way dissonant sexual preferences of the partners are handled, and the extent to which the person is committed to promises made to their partner.
Using a large representative dataset from Germany, our empirical results confirm that personality plays an important role in various dimensions of sexuality. Continue reading “We also find evidence that openness to experience is positively associated with sexual satisfaction and frequency of intercourse”