Flashback Friday: Can differing levels of sexual experience doom your relationship?

Photo: flickr/inottawaEveryone has their number -- how many people you were "with" before your current relationship. This number is usually not revealed to one's partner... for good reason! But even if you don't tell, can it still impact your relationship? In this study, the researchers surveyed married, cohabitating, and dating couples to find out whether couples with different levels of sexual experience were more or less happy. As you might have guessed, many couples were pretty well-matched in terms of their sexual experience. However, those couples with very different numbers reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with and commitment to their relationship. So, you might be wondering, how do most couples end up with matching levels of experience if they don't talk about it? The authors speculate that "because sexual experience is correlated with religiosity, social–political attitudes, and other variables, it is possible that as couples match on these variables, ...