Seven decades of research have consistently replicated the link between a higher number of lifetime sexual partners or permissive sexual attitudes and negative relationship outcomes, such as infidelity, relationship instability, dissatisfaction, and dissolution (Smith & Wolfinger, 2024; Vowels, Vowels, & Mark, 2022; Buss & Schmitt, 2019; Jackson et al., 2019; McNulty et al., 2018; Fincham & May, 2017; Regnerus, 2017; Pinto & Arantes, 2017; Buss, 2016; Martins et al., 2016; Vrangalova, Bukberg, & Rieger, 2014; Busby, Willoughby, & Carroll, 2013; Maddox-Shaw et al., 2013; Campbell et al., 2009; Penke & Asendorpf, 2008; Whisman & Snyder, 2007; Platek & Shackelford, 2006; Barta & Kiene, 2005; McAlister, Pachana, & Jackson, 2005; Hughes & Gallup, 2003; Treas & Giesen, 2000; Feldman & Cauffman, 1999; Forste & Tanfer, 1996; Kelly & Conley, 1987; Essock-Vitale & McGuire, 1985; Thompson, 1983; Athanasiou & Sarkin, 1974; Kinsey et al., 1953).
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Justin Lehmiller (2021), social psychologist and research fellow at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, wrote, “if you’re unhappy with your relationship and this is coupled with high sexual desire and a permissive view of sex, the odds of infidelity will be quite a bit higher”.
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David Ludden (2019), professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College, wrote, “A third factor is a person’s attitudes toward casual sex. People who strongly believe in sex as an expression of love within a committed relationship are less likely to stray compared with those who have a past of multiple sex partners. That former playboy is unlikely to be good husband material”.
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Athena Staik (2019), an adjutant professor in psychology, wrote: “Contrary to the myth, partners who’ve had many partners have a harder, not easier, time remaining monogamous. They are significantly more at risk of straying than those with little or no prior sexual experience”.
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In 2018, researchers at Florida State University wrote, “A person’s history of sex was a predictor of infidelity, too. Men who reported having more short-term sexual partners prior to marriage were more likely to have an affair”.
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In 2015, Men’s Journal magazine got in touch with Zhana Vrangalova, a sex researcher and adjunct professor of human sexuality at New York University, for her article “What the Number of Sexual Partners Says About You,” writing, “According to many experts, it matters — and can say a fair amount about your sexual needs and even who you are… As it relates to sexual history later in life, promiscuity is linked to a higher likelihood of cheating in long-term, serious relationships. Vrangalova thinks the reason may be that many promiscuous people aren’t really built for monogamy”.
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Douglas Kenrick (2014), a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, wrote: “As it turned out, having more sexual partners was associated with less stable relationships and less relationship satisfaction”.
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W. Bradford Wilcox (2018), professor of sociology at University of Virginia, was quoted in The Atlantic, “Contrary to conventional wisdom, when it comes to sex, less experience is better, at least for the marriage”.
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Juliana French (2019), assistant professor of psychology at Oklahoma State University, has said, “When people couple up, they enter into relationships with their own personal relationship histories. If those histories include a cast of previous no-strings-attached sexual partners and/or acceptance toward casual sex, then staying in a satisfying, long-term relationship may be more difficult”.