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Men suppose about sexual urge every seven seconds , right ? Not according to a new study that finds men contemplate sleep and solid food as much as they do sexual practice .

The medial identification number ofthoughts about sexby college - historic period men was 18 times a solar day to women ’s 10 times a day , the discipline found . But the military man also thought about food and slumber proportionately more .

Man on couch

" In other Holy Scripture , there was nothing extra about sexual thoughts , " sketch investigator Terri Fisher , a psychologist at The Ohio State University , Mansfield , state LiveScience . " Males thought more about any of the health - related thought compare to females , not just thoughts about sex . "

gender on the brain

The " world cogitate about sex every seven seconds " axiom is an urban legend , Fisher said . But there is little reliable research on how often men and women really do havesexual mentation . Most studies have asked mass to think back across their sidereal day or workweek and attempt to remember how many sexual activity thoughts they had – a method acting that does n’t always allow for reliable results . [ Top 10 Urban Legends ]

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Fisher and her colleagues rather asked 163 college women and 120 college men to carry around small golf - apoplexy tally counters . So they would n’t be bias to think about sexual practice , the students were told they ’d be ask about health - related thought process , Fisher sound out . Next , the researchers told 60 percent of the students to click the tabulator whenever they thought about sex . Others were instructed to tally their thoughts on food and eternal rest .

" The stereotype is that men think about sexual activity constantly and fair sex rarely [ think about it ] , " Fisher say . But that ’s not what she and her colleagues found . There was a broad range in the number of sex thoughts , from several participants who recorded one intend a day , to a male participant who recorded 388 opinion in a day . Factoring in the participant’ssleep sentence , his 388 thoughts break down to having a intimate thought every 158 seconds , Fisher say , still far fewer than the " every seven second " caption would suggest .

Sex , sleep and snacks

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On average , Fisher wrote , the men in the subject thought about sexuality slightly more than once each ignite hour and cleaning woman about half that . However , homo paid no greater attention to gender than they did food and sleep , Fisher found . That difference of opinion could be a real one in which men are just more aware of their physical state at any given time , she said , or it could be that homo are more easy clicking the counting antagonistic to record their body - centrical thoughts .

" There are stereotype about women and sex and aboutwomen and food , " Fisher articulate , and women who indicated on questionnaire that they handle more about what others think about them were less likely to report food and sex - based thoughts . They were equally like to describe their sleep - based thoughts , which are n’t so open to stereotypes , Fisher say . The determination suggests that char , but not men , are determine by social desirability concerns in what they were thinking or what they would let in to thinking .

The study has limitations , including the fact that hoi polloi run not to have isolate persuasion . The data also does n’t show whether an single thought is a one - second passing whimsey or a full - on 10 - minutesexual fancy . The study was set to college students , but Fisher presently has enquiry under way on adults ages 25 and up . She tell she hop to get to the true statement of thesex divergence storiesthat get passed around in popular civilization .

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" When the great unwashed take heed about some of these differences , I think sometimes they do n’t call into question it because it fits the stereotypes we have of men and woman , " Fisher said . " When you stop and take a closer look at the origin of some of these say differences , they sometimes have no empirical backing . "

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