If someone asks you that on a first date, they could be asking a proxy question. OK Cupid, the dating site that uses its database to research the sociology of romance, has been considering the best questions to ask on a first date if your real goal is to find out something altogether different: Among all our casual topics, whether someone likes the taste of beer is the single best predictor of if he or she has sex on the first date. H/T: Nathan Yau...

10 February, 2011
Reader Ritchie Simpson challenges me to consult a mathematician on my assertion that "one should always be sceptical of surveys that show heterosexual men had more partners, on average, than women, since this is a mathematical impossibility."
While I do not fundamentally disagree with your observation about "heterosexual men," I am dubious about your math.
My go-to guy on matters arithmetic is retired Cape Breton University professor Doug Grant, now living in exile in Kitchener. His response after the jump.
30 October, 2010

The dating site OK Cupid dips into its database of 3.2 million users to compare gays and straights, debunking a few myths along the way. A few highlights: Gays and straights have the same number of sex partners: six, on average; the same for men, women, gays, and straights.* Gays do not pursue sex with straights. (Only 0.6% of OKC's gay male users have ever searched for straight matches; only 0.1% of its lesbians users have ever done so; only 0.13% of straight users's profile visitors are gay.) Straight people sometimes have gay sex, straight women for more so than straight men. (One in four...

28 October, 2010