Couples hoping that having more sex will improve their relationships should think again after a new study found that it does not boost happiness levels.
Although countless research and self-help books insit that injecting more sex into a flailing love life can bring back the spark, psychologists found that it could make the problem worse.
In fact increasing the frequency of sex actually led to a drop in desire and enjoyment.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers asked 64 couples aged between 35 and 65 to take part in an experiment to discover if more sex improved their relationships over three months.
Half were told to keep their love lives the same as normal, while the other half were asked to double episodes of intercourse. They were questioned about their happiness levels and how much they had enjoyed sex during the period.
The couples instructed to increase sexual frequency did have more sex but over the period their happiness levels fell. The researchers found that couples instructed to have more sex reported lower sexual desire and a decrease in sexual enjoyment. It wasn't that actually having more sex led to decreased wanting and liking for sex. Instead, it seemed to be just the fact that they were asked to do it, rather than initiating on their own.
"Perhaps couples changed the story they told themselves about why they were having sex, from an activity voluntarily engaged in to one that was part of a research study,” said Professor George Loewenstein, the study's lead investigator.
“If we ran the study again we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with baby-sitting, hotel rooms or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so.”
Despite the results, Prof Loewenstein continues to believe that most couples have too little sex for their own good, and thinks that increasing sexual frequency in the right ways can be beneficial.
And another study's designers, Tamar Krishnamurti, suggested that the findings may actually help couples to improve their sex lives and their happiness.
“Instead of focusing on increasing sexual frequency to the levels they experienced at the beginning of a relationship, couples may want to work on creating an environment that sparks their desire and makes the sex that they do have even more fun," he said.
The research was published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation.
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