Why are fewer young adults having casual sex? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#151

Post by DC1350 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:04 PM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #131

ceilingcorner wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was more or less the purpose of monogamy. If you observe many societies that don’t strongly enforce it, you see that wealthy men end up having tons of wives, while poor men have none. Same situation is happening in America, we just don’t call it polygamy because it has been reduced entirely to the physical act.

Sounds like we should eliminate the need for and concept of wealth, then, so people can congregate based on shared interest instead of having to factor in the possibility of monetary support from their partner(s).

If everyone was perfectly equal in every way except appearance, then it would just be the most attractive men forming harems instead of the most wealthy.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#152

Post by orwin » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #129

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this explanation often, but it ignores the fact that only a small fraction of population uses Tinder. I don't know the real reason, but if I was to guess, the most obvious one is that there are so many interesting things to do, learn, engage in, that making considerable effort in order to have sex simply doesn't seem worth it, that's all.

So basically men quit sex because it is difficult to obtain for them and there are now other options but women continue to have sex because it is easy to obtain?

Its an interesting take. I have no energy to spend in a loveless relationship tbh, and only respond when someone start flirting with me, but i never engage anything, and never did since my first relationship of 5 years. It sometime led to casual sex when i was still drinking on saturday night, but now that i stopped drinking, i stay at the flirting stage and never go further, because i realized that either casual sex is overrated, either i'm weird and don't get as much pleasure as other men, and the downsides are bigger than the upsides.

I have another take: younger male are less attractive than older male for females between 20 and 26, or less rich?

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#153

Post by wittyreference » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

Armisael16 wrote: post #64

wittyreference wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they find no relationship between changing economic circumstances and the outcome, and but a positive relationship between likelihood of co-residence with parents and the outcome, the likelihood that they have made statistical blunders greatly outweighs the likelihood that changing economic circumstances do not play a role.

When looking at any one variable they’re controlling for the others.

Controlling for confounders is better than not; it's also far short of adequate ("controlling" means "reducing a little," not "eliminating"), and in collinear variables you can easily kill the significance of one by adjusting for the other, if you're not careful (ordinarily we experiment with the order of controlling in a multiple regression, to see if that occurs, as well as testing for interaction effects.)

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#154

Post by durnygbur » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

liaukovv wrote: post #126

DC1350 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate reality of sexual freedom is that most men would never be freely chosen for casual sex. The only reason they historically got laid was because of social and economic pressure against women. I don’t think it’s possible to have both gender equality and large scale monogamy.

Only if society takes it upon itself(upon undateable men really) to rear all offspring

I wouldn't mind not having sex, if society and labour code wouldn't force me into supporting not my children - who have both parents, by single mothers who made wrong choice, or single mothers who went through in-vitro. If there was a way to avoid it...

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#155

Post by durnygbur » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

twobitshifter wrote: post #130

throwaway8581 wrote: post #26

Many comments are ignoring the most important aspect. The decline is almost all among men not women: > Using a slightly different age range and time frame, Ueda et al. (2020) found that the percentage of sexually inactive men ages 18 to 24 increased from 18.9 percent in 2000–2002 to 30.9 percent in 2016–2018, and the percentage of sexually inactive young women increased from 15.1 percent to 19.1 percent over the same…

There is an easier explanation- that the young women are having sex with men older than 24. With people getting married later in life the pool of unmarried men from 24-30 is much larger than in the past. My understanding is that younger women tend to prefer a slightly older guy and men tend to prefer a slightly younger woman. In the 18-24 age group, the 18-24 year old men are competing against themselves and older me…

To cheer you up it doesn't get any better as you age.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#156

Post by wittyreference » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

Armisael16 wrote: post #138

hntrader wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living with your parents and facing economic difficulty are going to be correlated. If they're included together in a multivariable regression (which is often what people mean when they say "controlling for") then they're going to have multicollinearity and it's not possible to disambiguate the unique role of one versus the other. It's plausible that the former variable is "stealing" some of the statistical significa…

Is that a statistical blunder? If economic circumstances provide no additional explanatory power beyond coresidence...

It is, because another way of phrasing that is "coresidence provides no additional explanatory power beyond economic circumstances."

When that's what your data looks like, proper study design either involves testing that hypothesis, or staying the fuck away from making conclusions that take one of those as significant and one as non-significant.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#157

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

wittyreference wrote: post #156

Armisael16 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a statistical blunder? If economic circumstances provide no additional explanatory power beyond coresidence...

It is, because another way of phrasing that is "coresidence provides no additional explanatory power beyond economic circumstances." When that's what your data looks like, proper study design either involves testing that hypothesis, or staying the fuck away from making conclusions that take one of those as significant and one as non-significant.

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Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#158

Post by volkk » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

quacked wrote: post #100

cashewchoo wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I'm deeply thankful for is that I was engaged coming out of college to the woman of my dreams, and that Tinder didn't really fully catch on until I was already seriously dating my now-wife. The modern dating market sounds like one of the most depressing aspects of modern adult society.

It is an absolute nightmare and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Modern "dating" is frightening, dehumanizing, demoralizing, ahistorical, amoral, and devoid of meaning.

honestly it's all extremely subjective. my experience with modern dating (read: endless tinder dates) was mostly positive. of course i had plenty of heartbreaks, a LOT of wasted time. but mostly, i got to meet some really interesting people and create some wonderful connections, even if they were brief. ultimately i met my now girlfriend of 4 years.

there were periods i would have 0 matches, and then out of nowhere would get 10 in a day. the algorithm is extremely inconsistent and i would play the game of deleting my account/restarting to get that boost to be on top of people's feeds. ultimately I've found the best combination of pictures that worked pretty consistently/well.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#159

Post by clydethefrog » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

durnygbur wrote: post #155

twobitshifter wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an easier explanation- that the young women are having sex with men older than 24. With people getting married later in life the pool of unmarried men from 24-30 is much larger than in the past. My understanding is that younger women tend to prefer a slightly older guy and men tend to prefer a slightly younger woman. In the 18-24 age group, the 18-24 year old men are competing against themselves and older me…

To cheer you up it doesn't get any better as you age.

I recently unlocked Tinder NG+ by turning 27. The encounters are harder to unlock but also more rewarding.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#160

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

hntrader wrote: post #141

Armisael16 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a statistical blunder? If economic circumstances provide no additional explanatory power beyond coresidence...

Not really, it's normal. If you have two independent variables that are highly correlated, and you include both into the model, it's going to be pretty arbitrary which one ends up with statistical significance. If we're dealing with weak effects and small data, there's very little one can do. That's why epidemiological studies like this kinda suck.

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