It's called the "Sexperience 1000", even though the survey had an n of 7500. Marketers.

August 16, 2011 2:39 PM

The Sexperience 1000 is a neat interactive journey / visualization through the sexual experiences and preferences of British individuals.

A few neat results :

* Bitter drinkers are more likely than average to have indulged in partner swapping (8%), they have the highest number of one night stands (7.2) and are also most likely to have had a threesome (20%)
* Teetotallers are less likely than average to use a sex toy (34%)
* Londoners favourite sexual position is doggy style (21%)

ht: Buzz Data

posted by stratastar (61 comments total)

That was a very intriguing sentence right up until I hit the word 'British'
posted by $0up at 2:45 PM on August 16, 2011 [21 favorites]

The breakdown of the data by supermarket preference is a strange choice.
posted by the jam at 2:45 PM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Eeew?
posted by sammyo at 2:48 PM on August 16, 2011

Thanks, great post
posted by mumimor at 2:49 PM on August 16, 2011

Eeew?


It's ok. Just lie on your back, think of England, and it will be over in a jiffy.
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:07 PM on August 16, 2011 [20 favorites]

The breakdown of the data by supermarket preference is a strange choice.

Well, you certainly don't want to bang anyone who shops at Asda, now do you?
posted by Kitteh at 3:08 PM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Iceland however....
posted by villanelles at dawn at 3:14 PM on August 16, 2011

The data seem to suggest that after you've had 5 partners, none of whom have turned out to be Mr. or Mrs. Right, you are increasingly likely to start hosting orgies.
posted by zylocomotion at 3:22 PM on August 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bitter drinkers

Is this someone who is bitter and drinks? Or someone who likes to drink bitters?

Country music fans have the fewest number of partners (8) but are most likely to have had crabs

ಠ_ಠ
posted by jquinby at 3:24 PM on August 16, 2011 [11 favorites]

FlowingData has a nice writeup of the visualization. I like the way you can follow individuals through as you play with questions and filters. It's also great how you can look at the full stats while highlighting folks who match the filter. For instance, you can select "homosexual / bisexual" in the filters and then look at all the responses with just that subset.

Shame it's a small self-selected sample.
posted by Nelson at 3:24 PM on August 16, 2011

So, of the 18 males in the 26-34 range who use the pill as their primary form of contraception only 17 identify as heterosexual. The remaining one identifies as homosexual. Why would a homosexual male use the pill as his primary mode of contraception?

I know that sexuality can be fluid and someone who identifies as a gay man may still have sex with women on occasion, but frequently enough that he's using the pill on a regular basis (or, more accurately, his partner(s) are using the pill)?
posted by asnider at 3:28 PM on August 16, 2011

Oh, nice find. Well its self-selected of people who watch the tv program. The 1000 is then randomly selected to be proportional to the general population.

Of course any question then needs to be conditioned by: OF the population of northerners WHO WATCHED THIS PROGRAM ABOUT SEX... 20% of did it with stockings.

Stockings? only in England are stockings a separate fetish... someone care to explain?
posted by stratastar at 3:29 PM on August 16, 2011

I have developed this really odd sense that the British as a whole are obsessed, not with sex, but with reporting about sex. It seems just about every time I click on some "science of sex" link or flip on the egghead TV channels, it's some BBC or museum presentation from England about sex. It's sort of funny.
posted by Miko at 3:58 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

NPOWER INCREASE ELECTRICITY PRICES BY 7.2%, MORE PEOPLE PREFER SEX IN THE DARK.
posted by Jehan at 4:02 PM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

It seems just about every time I click on some "science of sex" link or flip on the egghead TV channels, it's some BBC or museum presentation from England about sex. It's sort of funny

Perhaps the BBC/Britain appears relatively obsessed with sex because the rest of the world is too prudish to report on sex related matters? The Brits may not be doing it, but Long Live the Queen, they are bloody well going to report on it all the same.
posted by vidur at 4:15 PM on August 16, 2011

the jam: "The breakdown of the data by supermarket preference is a strange choice."

It's code for class. People who shop at Waitrose are very posh, people who shop at Iceland are very... not so posh. It's not like Americans don't make assumptions about Whole Foods fans vs. Walmart devotees.

stratastar: "Stockings? only in England are stockings a separate fetish... someone care to explain?"

What fetish are they usually combined with where you are?
posted by jack_mo at 4:18 PM on August 16, 2011 [7 favorites]

I don't know if I've ever watched porn, either.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:34 PM on August 16, 2011

For some reason the cast of the BBC's "As Time Goes By" flashed before my eyes when I read "the sexual experiences and preferences of British individuals." They were not naked.
posted by mecran01 at 4:35 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's code for class. People who shop at Waitrose are very posh, people who shop at Iceland are very... not so posh. It's not like Americans don't make assumptions about Whole Foods fans vs. Walmart devotees.

I'm surprised that you can't filter by newspaper choice. Every survey I've ever been asked to fill out has had that as one of the first questions, presumably as a proxy for political views and class.
posted by metaBugs at 4:37 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's ok. Just lie on your back, think of England, and it will be over in a jiffy.

Heh. There used to be a brand of condoms in Britain called Jiffies. Advertising slogans included "I'm coming in a Jiffy." etc.
posted by carter at 4:42 PM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

There used to be a brand of condoms in Britain called Jiffies.

It's popcorn in the US. Jiffy Pop Pop shot Corn.
posted by octobersurprise at 5:01 PM on August 16, 2011

The mere fact that you call making love "Pop Pop" tells me that you're not ready.
posted by kersplunk at 5:10 PM on August 16, 2011 [32 favorites]

Officers from major metropolitan police forces are more likely to be into "kettling."
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:18 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

The mere fact that you call making love "Pop Pop" tells me that you're not ready.



I wish that I could favorite that a thousand times.
posted by horsemuth at 5:39 PM on August 16, 2011

If you halve the number of sexual partners men say they've had, and double the number that women do, you usually get closer to the right answers.
posted by joannemullen at 5:43 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you halve the number of sexual partners men say they've had, and double the number that women do, you usually get closer to the right answers.

I thought it was the Rule of Three.
posted by asnider at 5:47 PM on August 16, 2011

Yeah, "stockings" jumped out at me too—made me wonder if that's a Britticism for something I'd recognize by another name.
posted by adamrice at 5:48 PM on August 16, 2011

Why would a homosexual male use the pill as his primary mode of contraception?

Because he has functioning ovaries and is fertile and identifies as a man. (IE: transgender men are men, transgender men who are attracted to men are homosexual men)
posted by FritoKAL at 6:04 PM on August 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

I was fairly surprised at the low number of people who have even heard of BDSM.
posted by IAmUnaware at 6:21 PM on August 16, 2011

Perhaps the BBC/Britain appears relatively obsessed with sex because the rest of the world is too prudish to report on sex related matters?

Whatever the US is about sex, "too prudish" does not describe it. Immature, maybe - no, definitely - but not prudish.

I might subscribe to your theory that the proliferation of such topics reflects a well-adjusted, healthy, non-neurotic British interest in sex if these shows felt either truly fresh or calmly serious. Somehow they end up in the bland middle. I think they're driven more by the sort of curious, prurient interest in what other people might be doing than a genuine comfort with sex individually.
posted by Miko at 6:30 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Perhaps the BBC/Britain appears relatively obsessed with sex because the rest of the world is too prudish to report on sex related matters?

The rest of the world is more prudish about sex than ... the British?
posted by louche mustachio at 6:36 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's ok. Just lie on your back, think of England, and it will be over in a jiffy.

Maybe Q. Victoria just had a serious thing for England. Especially when it was wearing stockings.
posted by mmmbacon at 6:37 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

"I was fairly surprised at the low number of people who have even heard of BDSM."

Maybe it had to do with the way the question was worded (though perhaps the instrument anticipated this and corrected for it). I suspect there are people who have heard of bondage or s&m but not the term BDSM.
posted by scunning at 6:42 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Because he has functioning ovaries and is fertile and identifies as a man. (IE: transgender men are men, transgender men who are attracted to men are homosexual men)

You're probably correct. It would help if they weren't confusing sex and gender in the data.
posted by asnider at 6:50 PM on August 16, 2011

Yeah, "stockings" jumped out at me too—made me wonder if that's a Britticism for something I'd recognize by another name.

Long socks. The most erotic of all socks.
posted by dng at 6:50 PM on August 16, 2011

This is awesome! I don't see many things that are both this adventurous in style and subject matter and still are very informative and readable.
posted by tmcw at 7:04 PM on August 16, 2011

Long socks. The most erotic of all socks.

Long black dress socks, worn with sandals and khaki shorts, pale bandy legs between. Ymmm.
posted by maxwelton at 7:24 PM on August 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's like the Wii "Everybody Votes" game. But more Kinsey.
posted by Gucky at 8:47 PM on August 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sock suspenders, people. Sock suspenders.
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:00 AM on August 17, 2011

asnider: I know that sexuality can be fluid and someone who identifies as a gay man may still have sex with women on occasion, but frequently enough that he's using the pill on a regular basis (or, more accurately, his partner(s) are using the pill)?

(Slips wedding ring into pocket, whistling)
Yeah, really, that'd never happen. Totally implausible.
posted by jake at 2:16 AM on August 17, 2011

The Brits may not be doing it, but Long Live the Queen, they are bloody well going to report on it all the same.

Actually, we as a nation have rather a lot of sex, thanks. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article5257166.ece

(annoyingly I can't find a link to the original study, despite it being reported in half a dozen, major papers, so can't comment on the validity of the methodology / survey. But it largely bears out my personal observation - the stereotypes about the British and sex are pretty poorly reflections of modern British behaviour)
posted by DRMacIver at 2:19 AM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

For our american readers, stockings in british refers exclusively to long womens hosiary worn with suspenders (garter belt), garters or are stay-ups. They are destinct from tights (hose?) in that they expose the upper thigh and um, make the lady bits available if panties are not worn. While sometimes combined with a foot fetish, often it is the bracketing of the upper thigh and implication of sauciness that is the fetish, as opposed to the 'i want to stay warm, dammit' implication of tights.

Also, bitter is the warm ale served at room temperature, as opposed to tasteless lager, or bitters, the component of cocktails. Bitter drinkers are more common in the north, and again it's a class thing.
posted by ArkhanJG at 2:33 AM on August 17, 2011 [4 favorites]

Also, bitter is the warm ale served at room temperature, as opposed to tasteless lager, or bitters, the component of cocktails. Bitter drinkers are more common in the north, and again it's a class thing.

Cue i_am_joe's_spleen's story about wanting to try the local bitter in a Black Country pub and being met with a puzzled glance and and a query about why an apparently well-to-do gentleman would want a "poor man's drink".
posted by rodgerd at 2:58 AM on August 17, 2011

Also, bitter is the warm ale served at room temperature

And it's a swing and a miss.

Bitter is categorically not 'warm', nor is it served best at room temperature. Bitter should be stored at cellar temperature - typically around 10-12 degrees C, and should be served at this temperature. This is by no means warm nor 'room' temperature, unless you happen to be in a cave, or a pensioner's unheated bedroom.
posted by metaxa at 4:35 AM on August 17, 2011 [5 favorites]

Cue i_am_joe's_spleen's story about wanting to try the local bitter in a Black Country pub and being met with a puzzled glance and and a query about why an apparently well-to-do gentleman would want a "poor man's drink"

That's interesting; in the US, bitter ales came back to us as part of the craft-beer revival, and so they're more of a high-end drink here.
posted by Miko at 5:51 AM on August 17, 2011

"why an apparently well-to-do gentleman would want a "poor man's drink"

Was he stationed there during the war?
posted by fatfrank at 6:25 AM on August 17, 2011

7% have made love on a train
posted by Sutekh at 6:28 AM on August 17, 2011

I think the British have always gone at it like weasels haven't we? Certainly working class British.
posted by communicator at 8:12 AM on August 17, 2011

Yes, that's true. Even the upper class I think - purportedly the reputation is mostly based on what the Victorians said they did when they were in public, while what they were actually doing was significantly dirtier. [citation needed]
posted by DRMacIver at 8:31 AM on August 17, 2011

ArkhanJG: "often it is the bracketing of the upper thigh and implication of sauciness that is the fetish"
Thanks for the explanation, although I'm surprised that in itself rises to the level of "fetish." It's listed as a "sexual practice" in the visualization, and almost half the people who "have done, would not again" are men, which makes me wonder what they were doing and what they disliked about it.
posted by adamrice at 8:58 AM on August 17, 2011

The rest of the world is more prudish about sex than ... the British?
posted by louche mustachio at 2:36 AM on August 17

Somebody doesn't know many Brits very well.
posted by Decani at 10:39 AM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, bitter is the warm ale served at room temperature,
posted by ArkhanJG at 10:33 AM on August 17

Cellar temperature. Please let's not perpetuate the foolish American myth that we like our beer warm.

Oh and stockings? This is what we mean by stockings. (Possibly NSFW, if you work for stiffs). Any further questions?
posted by Decani at 10:42 AM on August 17, 2011

Somebody doesn't know many Brits very well.

This. I mean, what the hell? Have these people never seen the documentary series Skins?

Not to mention Americans are the ones who went mental over Janet Jackson's nipple, when every day you can see a grubby pair in some of our so-called newspapers.
posted by Quantum's Deadly Fist at 11:26 AM on August 17, 2011

Surprisingly enough: Only four percent of people aged 16-25 masturbate daily, while seven percent of people aged 35-44 do. Somehow I'd assumed the former category would be much larger.
posted by ymgve at 12:38 PM on August 17, 2011

Decani writes "Cellar temperature. Please let's not perpetuate the foolish American myth that we like our beer warm."

Relative to fridge temperature cellar temperature is warm.
posted by Mitheral at 1:47 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cask ales surely are a pinnacle of british civilization! Don't succumb to ignorant Americans (us) making fun of you for it!
posted by stratastar at 5:41 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Not to mention Americans are the ones who went mental over Janet Jackson's nipple, when every day you can see a grubby pair in some of our so-called newspapers.

I was sure someone would call out some flap like this; but it's just that there are certain places in American culture where the widespread expectation is to find NO overtly sexual content. Daytime television, the Superbowl, a funeral, public school - these are some of those places. (Whether an accidental nipple showing is sexual content is another matter, but on a scantily attired, sexy dancer, that's how it read.)

However, we're also the people whose 12-year-old girls walk around in short-shorts with the word "JUICY" on the butt, trying to politely opt out of grinding, and generating much of the world's porn. The society is a little schizoid about sex, but at the same time you hear a few people fretting and posturing about it, it's also all over the place all the time. We've got weird hangups about sex, but as visible as the prudishness is across the pond, from up close it doesn't seem anywhere near as big a deal as the general proliferation and commodification of sexual imagery.
posted by Miko at 6:45 PM on August 17, 2011

Terribly constructed comment, the 12-year-olds weren't supposed to be the same ones with the grinding and the porn. And I'm not trying to sound like a prude, I just think we have to be honest, you might hear the talk but nobody's walking the walk.
posted by Miko at 6:46 PM on August 17, 2011

Surprisingly enough: Only four percent of people aged 16-25 masturbate daily, while seven percent of people aged 35-44 do. Somehow I'd assumed the former category would be much larger.

The remainder were too busy masturbating to answer the survey.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:18 PM on August 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Relative to fridge temperature cellar temperature is warm.
posted by Mitheral at 9:47 PM on August 17

Sure, and relative to Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox is stupid.
posted by Decani at 11:31 AM on August 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you put ice in all your drinks, or cool them to 40 degrees F or so, then yes, 55 is "warm," just as if you set your home thermostat normally to 62, and one day you wake up and it's 47 in your living room, then 47 is "cold."
posted by Miko at 2:09 PM on August 18, 2011