14 DAY TRIAL // Though they say – and it’s been verified many a time – that the key to a healthy, successful relationship is honesty and communication, a new survey cited by the Daily Mail shows that women still try to dodge questions about their former lovers. The reason for doing so is that they feel embarrassed or don’t want to be taken for what they’re not, the publication says.
Many movies have been made and humorous stories written about how men tend to up the number of their love conquests, while women would rather decrease it or, if possible, dodge the question altogether. What is surprising, though, according to the survey done by British website MyVoucher-Codes, is that, while women would rather reduce the number of lovers they had up to a certain point in their life, they wouldn’t do so by much because they don’t want to be seen as prudes either.
“Research shows that, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a split between the genders when it comes to answering the potentially embarrassing question. Around a third of women give a false response – and 64 per cent of these reduce the number. Half lie because they ‘feel ashamed’ of the number, while a further 19 per cent don’t want to be seen as promiscuous,” the Mail says of the survey. The answer women give also depends on what the male partner responds: if he had fewer lovers than her, she will most certainly lie.
“A higher proportion of men – 43 per cent – lie to their new partner. In these cases, around 60 per cent increase the amount. Around 42 per cent of men said they were ‘reluctant’ to settle down. In contrast, 21 per cent of the women claim to be ‘reluctant’ to settle down in a relationship,” the British publication writes. When drawing the line, it would seem that, on average, women have about 7 lovers, while men about 13.
The survey is not meant to point fingers or play the guilty game. Mark Pearson, the managing director of the website in question, says that, if there’s a lesson to be learned from it, that must be that all relationships should start with complete and total honesty, because a lie only leads to more lies and, inevitably, the end of the relationship.
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