Sex Makes You Dumber!

Sex and studying do not get along. The more sex partners you have, the more prone you are to academic failure, as found by a new survey made amongst students at Cambridge University. The on-line questionnaires completed by over 1,000 undergraduates revealed that poorly performing colleges had the most sexually active students.

Peterhouse, one of the least performing Cambridge colleges, won the bronze of the promiscuity: these students had an average of five sexual partners annually compared to three at Christ's College, a silver at Cambridge college as concerns the academic performances. Over 25 % of the Christ's students stated they were virgin, this college is the Cambridge champion on the issue.

The results, published in the student magazine Varsity, also revealed which subjects delivered more sexually active students than others. Sex champions were the medicine students, since they had the highest average number of sexual partners (8), opposite to theology, with 2. Social political science won the second place (7 annual partners), history the third (6), followed by modern and medieval languages (5).

More sex does not seem to be correlated with a more intelligent behavior. Even if 40 % of the students had at least a one-night stand, over 60 % had never made tests for HIV, chlamydia or other sexually transmitted diseases.

"The more sociable a person is the less time they have for their studies. People who have a lot of sexual partners not only spend time initiating relationships with people but they also have to contend with a lot of stress when those relationships break up. This can seriously affect a person's ability to concentrate," said Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University.

"Some results confirm long-held stereotypes. Those involved in postgraduate study are less likely to have had sex than their undergraduate counterparts. It suggests that as long as you believe in sex before marriage, you will have lost your virginity by the time you graduate," said Ed Cumming, Varsity's associate editor.

"It's obvious that the mathematicians haven't found the winning formula yet. But it's good to see that doctors and nurses is still a popular game," said student union president Mark Fletcher.