Our personality also says a lot about our sex life. From openness to new things to general approachability, character traits can also reveal what we are like in bed. It seems that scientists could infer a lot about anyone's sex life just based on certain traits that person possesses. Specifically, a large body of research suggests that our sex lives are shaped in part by five basic personality dimensions known as the Big Five.
A new study published in the Journal of Sex Research looks at the Big Five, which includes openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
Conscientiousness was shown to be the only one of these five factors that predicted sexual ability in both women and men. More specifically, men who were high in conscientiousness reported fewer problems with erections, while women who were high in conscientiousness reported fewer problems with sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm, as well as less pain during sex.
The research also found that conscientious people were more sexually satisfied.
Author Justin J. Leimiller came to similar results when he surveyed more than 4000 Americans about their sexual fantasies for his book Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life. Again, conscientious people had fewer sexual problems, as well as more satisfying sex lives and relationships. Interestingly, he discovered that they had sex more often.
The results of his research suggest a potential explanation for all of this: people with high conscientiousness were more likely to share their sexual fantasies with partners and report more positive experiences when it came to turning the fantasies into reality.
The more conscientious people are, the more detailed and concrete their fantasies are. They spent more time describing what others might consider unusual details, such as the setting in which their fantasy took place. The fact that conscientious people think very carefully about their fantasies probably explains why they have better experiences with acting out—they're less likely to be caught off guard because they've already planned for the unexpected. Also, the fact that their fantasies are more grounded in reality probably makes them easier to fulfill.
However, if you are not a conscientious person by nature, this does not necessarily mean that you are doomed to a lifetime of bad sex. A number of factors contribute to this and it would be unwise to suggest that any single trait or characteristic dictates one's entire sex life. Being conscientious simply means that you might have a little plus when it comes to your intimate life.
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