Why Buddhists Are Slutty and Muslims Are Chaste

A recent study in the American Sociological Review titled “Religion and Sexual Behaviors,” reveals that religious affiliation has a big impact on the likelihood of sex before marriage.

418,000 people in developing countries were surveyed. All major religions prohibit premarital sex, but Muslims seem to take Islam’s rules regarding sex especially seriously. Sociologists found that Muslims were the least likely of all major religious groups to have had sex before marriage.

If I weren’t already a Jewish atheist, I’d be all over the Buddhism thing.

This isn’t particularly surprising, but what was interesting was that the probability of a Muslim woman having had premarital sex changes depending on how dominant Islam is in the country where she lives.

If this woman lives in a nation where 1 percent of residents are Muslim, her predicted probability of reporting premarital sex would be .72…In a nation where 90 percent of residents are Muslim, the woman’s predicted probability of reporting premarital sex would tumble to .28. We can thereby conclude that national culture has stronger effects than individual preferences.

As for why Buddhists rank highest in premarital sex? The researchers suppose that it could be because Buddhism is not monotheistic, it has fewer “strict rules about specific behaviors.”

If I weren’t already a Jewish atheist, I’d be all over the Buddhism thing.

You can read the original Boston Globe article here and share your thoughts below.