Source: The Mercury, Thursday, September 17, 1998,
p.23 Source: The Mercury, Thursday, September 17, 1998,
p.23
MEN say sex gives them most pleasure - but women rate listening to music as their most enjoyable activity. So says The Pleasure Quota, a survey of 4000 people in eight countries, conducted for Associates for Research into the Science of Enjoyment. The study found big differences in what men and women enjoy most. Like men the world over, Australian males rated sex as their most pleasurable activity. But, while women said they enjoyed music more there's no need for males to despair. In fact, women rated sex as one of their second preferences - alongside shopping, tea and coffee. Figures showed Australian men also enjoyed listening to music, sport and exercise. Psychologist Dr Bob McBride asked his subjects to assess the pleasure they got from everyday activities such as sex, drinking a glass of wine, eating chocolate or smoking a cigarette. Dr McBride said he was surprised to find that, over- all, the most pleasurable ac- tivity for both men and women was listening to music, with sex coming a close second. "That surprised me a bit- I didn't think it would be so high. I thought sex would probably be at the top," Dr McBride said yesterday, as he launched his findings. "The study confirms that around the world we all derive the same amounts of pleasure, but in different ways. "Although we come from different countries and backgrounds, activities rate roughly the same around the world." Individuals in the study gave ratings out of 10 for each activity according to the level of enjoyment it provided. The study also found that: * Australians and Britons enjoyed sex more than Italians, while Germany came at the bottom of the scale in rating the pleasure of sex. * Australians also rated music higher than did Italians, Germans and the British. * Italians rated sport and exercise higher than did sup- posedly sports-mad Aust- ralians, and rated shopping higher than did Australians who were at the bottom of that list. * Australian men enjoyed alcohol and red meat more than women did. * Women the world over enjoyed eating chocolate more than men did. * Worldwide, wealthy people enjoyed sex, music and eating out, while low-income earners enjoyed rich foods shopping, chocolate and al- cohol. "This study proved that while we take gratification in certain pleasures, this aver- ages out across the board- with the results confirming that, while some people rate eating chocolate as their favourite activity, they don't derive the same pleasure from red meat," Dr McBride said. He said Europeans showed high pleasure ratings for high- fat foods and cigarettes while Australia rated lowest. He suggested that the bombardment of information about healthy eating and lifestyles had suppressed those activities. AAP
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