Are swingers smarter?

About a year ago I posted some thoughts about swingers being smarter than average. Most respondents disagreed and thought that swingers were a random sample of the general population. I have now dug up some pertinent data in a recent survey of swingers

"Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Volume 12, January 23, 2009
Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality
The Swinging Paradigm: An Evaluation of the Marital and Sexual Satisfaction of Swingers"

According to this survey 99.1% had a high school education or better (general population 84.6%), 50.7% had a bachelors degree or higher (general population 27.2%) and 22.7% had a masters, PhD or professional degree (general population 8.9%). Clearly swingers (at least those who are club members) are substantially better educated than the general population. Swingers are therefore definitely smarter than the general population.

In support of this is the fact that many ways in which swingers differ from the general population are positively correlated to IQ. Eg personality types, attitudes to a variety of topics (including religion), some demographics, etc.

There is evidence that most 'alternative' sexual activities are more common in higher IQ groups - see Kinsey for example. There is also a lot of evidence that getting into trouble in out of marriage sex e.g. unwanted pregnancies, stds, is much more of a low IQ thing. I'm guessing if you're a long time swinger you have figured out how to have sex out of marriage without getting into trouble.

Finally in my own research project I found that endorsement of items like "I would like to try a 3some, group sex, orgy", "I would accept an invite to take part in an orgy" are strongly correlated to IQ scores. Some time ago 40% of Psychology Today readers said they intended to try swinging in the future. Psychology Today readers are overwhelmingly smart women (> 80% a degree and 75% are women) so a least 20% (and probably 30%) of those women aimed to swing. In representative samples of the general population if 10% of women expressed such an intention it would be a lot.

All in all swinging becomes more likely as people get smarter and I suspect successful adjustment to swinging becomes more likely too.

Sorry about the geek speak.

[Alura]

It doesn't surprise me. Our playmates, selected without regard to their educational accomplishments, included a couple of RNs, an MD, and two PHDs. I won't say we're within the norm.

Alura

[hughb]

Interesting. Some may argue definitions i.e. educated=smart and while there is some correlation, we've all met some pretty well-educated idiots!

But it does take some intelligence to separate love and sex, and overall I would agree with the premise.

[PB&J]

Oh I don't know... I would have to say (as I believe I did last year on this same topic) that I've met a reasonable proportion of smart vs average vs helloooo is anybody in there? people in the Lifestyle over the 2 and a half years we've been involved. Sure we like to believe we're smarter than the average bear- but I take surveys and studies of swingers with a grain of salt. And yes- after years of higher education, I defy anybody to prove that a degree actually defines intelligence. It can- but then again, maybe not.

And you really think that an unwanted pregnancy is a sign of a low IQ? Really?

It is an interesting article, though. Thanks for posting it.

[LikeMinds321]

Maybe I'm not smart enough to be a swinger.

I couldn't find who conducted the study referred to by the OP?

LM

[spiritualuk]

I agree with some points you are trying to make, but am a little confused at what this would prove, and think research into this area would undoubtedly lead into flawed and somewhat obvious results, but above all else I’d defiantly NOT say that swingers are smarter or even have a higher IQ than average, and think that could be a dangerous and unwise assumption, as remember my friend this lifestyle can happen on five star swingers resorts with gleaming facilities, or it can happy in filthy council estate flats with rough and brutal people, even criminals, because in reality people from all walks of life are attracted to this subject, and that doesn’t mean you are smart, in fact you could be a complete tool and mindless thug, but that doesn’t stop the appeal of sex.

My other real concern with this subject is simply (WHO) is been questioned to form such results and figures? For example, a large majority of people involved in this lifestyle are more established couples (30 to 55) that are usually long term couples, or even husband and wife, and sure in some cases they have had chance to settle their lives a bit and have a home together, half decent jobs, and transport, maybe even a family, in which case the majority of the people you could ask already have settled relationships and lives, and could be viewed as been smarter and more stable, in which case your not really asking everyone, and defiantly aren’t accounting for everyone, for example are you going to walk around asking the local drug dealers there swinging preferences and if they have university degrees? Is someone going to walk around the prisons asking people if they prefer threesomes or foursomes, and then checking they know what three and four mean.

I can not see how you would get true or accurate results with this subject because the majority of people you would ask (in places such as clubs and resorts) would be 30+ in age and would be couples, most with established relationships and lives, in which case your only getting results from a limited range of people. I think what your research suggests is that the majority of people who swing seem smarter, simply because that’s the type of people they are meeting, seeing and interviewing for this information, and even then how would you know those answers were even real? All this research suggests to me is that some people into this lifestyle are smarter, maybe that’s because they are more studied and educated than most, or maybe its just because they are a little older and wiser and have more settled lives, but basically that intelligence, IQ, understanding or whatever else you like to call it WOULD make this lifestyle a little easier.

In other words smarter or more confident people might find it a little easier to incorporate this into their lives, maybe they talk more or understand easier, so sure there will be a fair few smart people floating around in the swinging world, but honestly there will be some complete idiots as well, criminals, drug dealers, violent people, and even those suffering from medical conditions such as depression, drug rehabilitation, or even serious mental health issues. I wonder how many women out there “only swing” because they have an abusive and aggressive husband who forces them, well would you class that man as been intelligent and smart, because we certainly wouldn’t. Kind of makes me giggle because you could meet a well groomed and intelligent man, he could even be a doctor (wow) and have visions of him leaning over the table and saying “Hi I’m doctor Lector” i.e Silence of the Lambs style.



Quote - “Ted Bundy was a clean-cut, smooth-talking serial killer who confessed to raping and killing more than 20 young women between 1974 and 1978. Executed in Florida in 1989 for three murders, his crimes began in Washington state in 1974. Bundy committed his attacks on women while leading a seemingly normal life, first in the Seattle area as a local Republican party campaigner, then in Salt Lake City as a law student at the University of Utah.”

The above is a quote taken from a web site, and sure Ted Bundy one of Americas most notorious serial killers and rapists was not only smart but he was a law student and a active political campaigner, in fact Ted Bundy worked on the re-election campaign for the Republican Governor, Dan Evans, who not only won the campaign but he appointed Ted Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee (LOL) Ted Bundy who beat, raped and killed over 20 women is on the crime prevention committee, that is ironic beyond belief, but sure he was a SMART MAN who was well educated, had a clean appearance, seemingly normal and prosperous life, so am not really sure how intelligence affects swinging, in fact you can be intelligent and sill be completely crazy.

So obviously you can have a lower education but still be a lovely person, in fact cant really see what difference intelligence would make, and think anyone has the potential to be a bad person, so what would really count is not “if they are smart” but simply if they are a nice and decent person who you gel with and find attractive. The truth is this lifestyle might be easier if you are more intelligent, but that doesn’t stop everyone else trying, and think assuming that most people into this lifestyle “are smart” or safe and understanding would be a HUGE MISTAKE, in fact was reading a post on here the other day where someone had a foursome and one of the wives got upset / drunk and pulled out a gun and started waving it about in anger, so sure some people into this lifestyle might be smarter, older, more established in there lives or whatever else, but smart doesn’t mean safe, and swinger doesn’t mean smart.

I do agree that swinging for more intelligent people might be a little easier because they are more in tune and understanding, they have the capacity to understand this subject, which in turn makes for less complications, BUT NO that doesn’t mean swingers are smarter than average, just that smarter people “might” have an easier time, and even that’s not guaranteed. Yes swingers come from all different walks of life and social back grounds, some are nice, some are bad, and some are intelligent, others aren’t that intelligent, so it would be impossible to coat us all with the same brush. As stated perhaps there is a link between intelligence and successfully swinging, but that doesn’t mean that everyone into this lifestyle is of higher intelligence, that would be wild assumption, and also as stated higher intelligence doesn’t always mean better, and doesn’t always mean safer.

[padoc]

We tend to meet our playmates at clubs or from on line sites. If we are checking profiles, we tend to look at the photos first and then we read the profiles. If the profile is informative and well written, we are interested. If it is poorly constructed, full of mis-spellings ("your" instead of "you're"), vague generalities ("down to earth", etc) and stupid shorthand ('want-2-f**k"), we invariably pass by that couple. At a club, we are attracted to good looking people who can converse beyond "nice tits, lets f**k". Consequently, the majority of our lifestyle friends are educated and intelligent professionals and likely smarter than average. That may be more a result of our selection process than a reflection on the intelligence of the swinger population. On the whole however, we have met a lot more bright people in the lifestyle than the dim bulbs.

[megauxurious]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies.

Just a couple of comments. The point I was trying to make is that swingers appear to be smarter ON AVERAGE. One cannot generalise from that to all swingers are smart (or nice) - that will most certainly not be the case. On average people with degrees are smarter than those without but it certainly isn't the case that everyone with a degree is bright or that someone who didn't finish high school is stupid.

I agree that there are potential issues with the swinger samples used in surveys. They may not be representative of swingers in general. However I do know that in much more random samples, or in samples of known intelligence, attitudes toward swinging gets more positive, and interest in trying swinging increases, as IQ increases. Its not just a weak trend either - its very marked - the interest among people with IQs above 120 is 5-10 times as frequent as interest among people with average IQs.

This is not to say low IQ people don't indulge in extramarital sex or wouldn't like to try an orgy. Its just that research shows they are much more likely to think its wrong. Many indulge anyway. The problem is they are not prepared when it happens and more often get into trouble. [There is no question that proper contraceptive use, rate of out of wedlock pregnancies, is highly IQ dependent.]

Furthermore from various comments about how many of you select partners it seems very likely that low IQ swingers (if not very hot or nice) are more likely to be marginalised and excluded.

Combining the greater high IQ attraction to swinging and the likely greater marginalisation of low IQ swingers I would be very surprised if the average IQ of swingers wasn't noticably above average.

[lovinher]

just reed threw some of the threds yuul git yore anser

Joking aside, Spiritualuk had a good take on it.