Thursday, March 01, 2007

The Rich are Different – They are Sluttier

A new study by Hannah Shaw Grove and Russ Alan Prince cited in MarketWatch reports that rich people have more sex, of more kinds, with more people, in more expensive places, than other people. Rich people think having money means having better sex than other people. Moreover, rich women are especially likely to think this: 84% of the women in the survey agreed, versus 63% of the men.

This sex does not seem to be constrained by marriage, either. While they are as married as the average American (85% of the total rich group are now married), they have affairs at much higher rates: 53% of the rich men, and a whopping 73% of the rich women admit to (brag about?) extramarital affairs. This is compared to about a quarter of average men, and half that rate for average women.

I think the most disturbing finding in this report is that 93% of the rich women think that higher-quality sex is the biggest benefit overall to being rich.

Wealth does not corrupt necessarily or absolutely, but it doesn't seem to be a big aid to one's morals.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't really have any comments except to say that the title of this post cracks me up.

Scott and Andrea Moore said...

Beau: your blog is great. I read it all the time.

I suspect that at the heart of this study there is a truth about self-sufficiency, leisure, boredom, and personal gratification. In addition to having more money, the super wealthy have more time and energy which isn't consumed by the hurly-burly demands of everyday existence. In short, they are more likely to be bored with their leisure, and thus, inclined to pursue new and different forms of personal gratification. Because self-sufficiency tends to undermine the imagination, they have fewer ideas about what to do with this boredom and leisure, and ergo . . . the current study.

Gruntled said...

I think the boredom of the rich -- especially rich heirs -- quickly leads to decadence and dissipation, and thus to being un-rich in three or four generations after the initial fortune-maker's mission is gone. Call it the Paris Hilton syndrome.