Sex is your duty!

That's according to a Sex, Religion, And Infidelity Survey

Among the surprising findings of the survey is the proportion of respondents in China who assert that religion plays a role in their sex lives. The Chinese authorities have a long track record of discouraging religion (and indeed sex), to say the least, so it's striking that 15 percent of Chinese agree that religion factors into their sexual behavior. The Chinese result probably reflects the fact that religion in Asia tends not to carry with it the "whiff of piety" it has in the West...

The Chinese are by far the most likely to think that monogamy is the natural state for human beings: 70 percent of them agree, compared with 57 percent of Americans and even fewer respondents in France, the U.K., and Germany (44, 42, and 40 percent, respectively).

The Chinese are also by far the least likely to consider it normal for a 30-something today to have had 10 or more different lovers over the course of his or her single years. Just 17 percent of Chinese agree, compared with 30 percent of French, 49 percent of Americans, 52 percent of Germans, and a substantial 59 percent of British.

An area in which the Chinese are more sexually liberal concerns extramarital affairs—specifically, affairs in which "nobody gets hurt." Nearly a quarter of Chinese (23 percent) think such affairs are OK, whereas in the Anglo-Saxon cultures, only 11 percent of British and 9 percent of Americans say the same. (The French and German samples were more in alignment with China than with the U.S. or U.K.)

In all the countries except the U.K., higher proportions of men than women are tolerant of extramarital affairs that cause pain to neither party. In the U.S., it´s 13 percent of men versus 4 percent of women; in China, it´s 27 percent versus 14 percent; and in Germany, it´s 28 percent versus 16 percent. Among British respondents, the statement received agreement from 11 percent of both sexes. Only the French came close to this level of equality, with 20 percent of men and 17 percent of women agreeing.

There´s also significant gender disparity regarding the notion that men and women are both entitled to expect regular sex of their partners, with consistently higher proportions of men than women agreeing. In the U.S., 76 percent of men agree compared with just 62 percent of women, and there´s a similarly wide gap in the U.K. (63 vs. 47 percent) and France (85 vs. 76 percent). The gap is much narrower in China (82 vs. 81 percent) and in Germany (79 vs. 77 percent).

The gender gap is even wider on the thorny question of whether same-sex partnerships/"marriages" should be accorded the same status as man-woman marriages. In all five countries, significantly higher proportions of women than men agree support the notion. The biggest gender gap is 22 points in Germany, where 45 percent of men agree compared with 67 percent of women. Elsewhere the gap is narrower but still clear, with a difference of 15 percentage points in the U.K. (37 vs. 52 percent), 13 points in France (35 vs. 48 percent), and 11 points in China (39 vs. 50 percent). Men and women are most in accord on this issue in the United States, where the gap is just 7 percent (31 vs. 38 percent).

Ya wonder what religion is factoring into Chinese sex. On the other hand, for the Chinese to consider monogamy as the natural state coincides with my impression of the Chinese; ditto the notion that it's not normal to have too many partners. I guess since it's so common for Chinese men to have mistresses, that pushes up the proportion who think extra-marital affairs are OK.