Furthermore, our estimations provide evidence that openness to experience is a positive determinant of being a good sex partner and fulfilling the partner’s sexual needs and desires. This suggests that an open person is more able to take into account the partner’s sexual preferences. Our results also show that openness to experience contributes to improved sexual communication. It is positively associated with expressing preferences during sex and the ability of expressing sexual needs and desires in general. This indicates that a person who is more open to the partner’s sexual preferences has better opportunities to communicate his or her preferences to the partner. In contrast to extraversion, we find no evidence that openness to experience is associated with extradyadic affairs. Thus, our analysis provides no evidence that openness to experience has an influence on commitment problems or the person’s outside options.

Conclusions

In this study, we have developed an economics-based approach to the role personality plays in people’s sex life. Personality not only shapes a person’s preferences for sex. It also shapes a person’s behavior in a sexual relationship. This behavior has an influence on the quality and quantity of sex and, hence, on the sexual well-being of the person and his or her partner. Personality shapes sexual communication and information sharing, the way dissonant sexual preferences of the partners are handled, and the extent to which the person is committed to promises made to their partner.

Using a large representative dataset from Germany, our empirical results confirm that personality plays an important role in various dimensions of sexuality. The Big Five personality traits have an influence on own sexual satisfaction, sexual fulfillment of the partner, sexual communication, actual and desired frequency of sex, and extradyadic affairs. In summary, conscientiousness contributes to a mutually beneficial sex life and increases the person’s commitment to the partner. The opposite holds true for neuroticism. Neuroticism not only decreases the person’s and the partner’s sexual well-being. It is also associated with a lower commitment to the partner. While extraversion and openness to experience help realize a mutually beneficial sex life, we find no evidence that they have a commitment value. Quite the contrary, the estimations edinburgh sugar daddy dating suggest that extraversion is associated with lower commitment to the partner. Agreeableness is associated with a higher commitment. However, it appears to make people more reluctant to express their sexual needs and desires.

We recognize the need for future research within this theme. Economists have been increasingly interested in the determinants of life satisfaction. Against this background, a small number of econometric studies have examined the link between sex and happiness. Future research could fruitfully examine if this link depends on personality traits. Personality may not only influence the quality and quantity of sex but may also moderate how sex translates into life satisfaction. Furthermore, comparative analyses could be a fruitful avenue for future research. Future studies could systematically examine the relationship between personality and sex for different cultures, countries, and societies. Finally, on a broader scale, our study suggests that giving sex and personality a more prominent role in family economics could lead to interesting theoretical and empirical advancements in this field. For example, it would be interesting to examine the influence of sexuality on family formation and dissolution.

Notes

This view is supported by research on personality and friendships (Doroszuk et al. 2019). Extroverts have more friends, make new friends faster in novel situations, and attract other people with their style. Openness to experience is also associated with a larger network of friends and higher interpersonal attraction.