Editing Promiscuity (section)

==Motivations==
Accurately assessing people's [[human sexual behavior|sexual behavior]] is difficult, since strong social and personal motivations occur, depending on social [[Social control|sanctions]] and [[taboo]]s, for either minimizing or exaggerating reported sexual activity.

American experiments in 1978 and 1982 found the great majority of men were willing to have sex with women they did not know, of average attractiveness, who propositioned them. No woman, by contrast, agreed to such propositions from men of average attractiveness. While men were in general comfortable with the requests, regardless of their willingness, women responded with shock and disgust.<ref name="clarkhatfield1989">{{cite journal | url=http://www.elainehatfield.com/79.pdf | title=Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers | author1=Clark, Russell D. III | author2=Hatfield, Elaine | journal=Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality | year=1989 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=39–55 | doi=10.1300/J056v02n01_04 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518061135/http://www.elainehatfield.com/79.pdf | archive-date=2012-05-18 }}</ref>

The number of sexual partners people have had in their lifetimes varies widely within a population. We see a higher number of people who are more comfortable with their sexuality in the modern world. A 2007 nationwide survey in the United States found the median number of female sexual partners reported by men was seven and the median number of male partners reported by women was four. The men possibly exaggerated their reported number of partners, women reported a number lower than the actual number, or a minority of women had a sufficiently larger number than most other women to create a mean significantly higher than the median, or all of the above. About 29% of men and 9% of women reported to have had more than 15 sexual partners in their lifetimes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19374216|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011035252/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19374216/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 11, 2013|title=Average man sleeps with 7 women - Health - Sexual health - NBC News|work=NBC News|date=22 June 2007}}</ref> Studies of the spread of [[sexually transmitted infection]]s consistently demonstrate a small percentage of the studied population has more partners than the average man or woman, and a smaller number of people have fewer than the statistical average. An important question in the [[epidemiology]] of sexually transmitted infections is whether or not these groups copulate mostly at random with sexual partners from throughout a population or [[assortative mixing|within their social groups]].

A 2006 [[systematic review]] analyzing data from 59 countries worldwide found no association between regional sexual behavior tendencies, such as number of sexual partners, and sexual-health status. Much more predictive of sexual-health status are socioeconomic factors like poverty and mobility.<ref name="wellings2006">{{cite journal  |vauthors=Wellings K, Collumbien M, Slaymaker E, etal |title=Sexual behaviour in context: a global perspective |journal=Lancet |volume=368 |issue=9548 |pages=1706–28 |year=2006 |pmid=17098090 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69479-8 |s2cid=17649137 |url=https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/general/lancet_2.pdf}}</ref> Other studies have suggested that people with multiple casual sex partners are more likely to be diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Garcia JR, Seibold-Simpson SM, Massey SG, Merriwether AM | year = 2015 | chapter = Casual Sex: Integrating Social, Behavioral, and Sexual Health Research |veditors=DeLamater J, Plante RF |editor1-link=John DeLamater | title = Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities | page = 215 | doi = 10.1007/978-3-319-17341-2_12 | publisher = Springer | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0d3yCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA215| isbn = 9783319173412 | series = Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research }}</ref>

Severe and impulsive promiscuity, along with a compulsive urge to engage in illicit sex with attached individuals is a common symptom of [[borderline personality disorder]], [[histrionic personality disorder]], [[narcissistic personality disorder]], and [[antisocial personality disorder]] but most promiscuous individuals do not have these disorders.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hull |first1=J. W. |last2=Clarkin |first2=J. F. |last3=Yeomans |first3=F. |year=1993 |title=Borderline personality disorder and impulsive sexual behavior |journal=Psychiatric Services |volume=44 |issue=10 |pages=1000–1001 |doi=10.1176/ps.44.10.1000|pmid=8225264 }}</ref>