Revealed: The four types of LOVERS, according to science - including one group that has sex 10 times a week
It's often seen as a taboo subject.
But a new study is finally lifting the lid on our sex lives.
Scientists from the Australian National University surveyed more than 800 people about their love lives, including how many times they have sex per week.
Their results suggest that there are four key types of lovers, ranging from 'mild' to 'libidinous'.
Mild lovers make up around 20 per cent of the population, and typically have sex twice a week.
At the other end of the scale are libidinous lovers, who have sex 10 times a week on average.
'The libidinous romantic lovers are the smallest cluster (9.64%) and exhibit relatively high intensity, relatively high obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and exceptionally high frequency of sex,' the researchers explained in their study.
So, what type of lover are you? Scroll down for the descriptions.
There have already been countless studies on sex and love.
However, until now, the psychological expression of romantic love has been largely unexplored.
Writing in their study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, the team, led by Adam Bode, wrote: 'While there is evidence of variation in the psychological expression of romantic love, to our knowledge, no one has attempted to directly empirically investigate this phenomenon.
'Understanding variation in romantic love as an interaction between genes and the environment can shed light on one necessary component of traits subject to evolution.'
To get to the bottom of it, the researchers enlisted 809 participants aged 18-25, who reported being in love with a romantic partner.
The participants were surveyed across four key measures - intensity of love, obsessive thinking, commitment, and frequency of sex.
They were also asked about various habits, including how often they drink alcohol, whether they drive dangerously, and whether or not they were on antidepressants.
An analysis of the results revealed that the participants fell into four main groups.
At the lowest end of the scale were 'mild romantic lovers', who made up 20 per cent of the group, and had sex twice a week on average.
Mild lovers were notably characterised by the lowest scores across all four primary variables.
'They have fallen in love the greatest number of times, have the shortest length of time in love, were the least likely to have fallen in love before commencement of their romantic relationship (19.75%), fell in love the longest length of time after having started a romantic relationship, and had the lowest proportion whose partner is 'definitely' in love with them (25.31%),' the researchers said.
Mild lovers were more likely to be male (58.64 per cent) than female, and had the least satisfying relationships.
What's more, they were the most likely group to report risky driving, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs.
Next up were 'moderate romantic lovers', who made up 40.9 per cent of the group, and had sex 2.5 times a week on average.
'The moderate romantic lovers exhibit relatively low intensity, relatively low obsessive thinking, relatively high commitment, and relatively moderate frequency of sex,' the researchers explained.
Moderate romantic lovers were more likely to be male (57.7 per cent) than female, and were the least likely to have children.
In addition, they were the least likely group to be on antidepressants.
The third group was 'intense romantic lovers', who made up 29 per cent of the population and had sex three times per week on average.
'By all accounts, this cluster is intensely in love,' the researchers said.
'They have the highest proportion who fell in love before their romantic relationship (28.57%) and the lowest proportion of unreciprocated love (3.78%).'
Intense romantic lovers were the only group with more females (60 per cent) than males, and had the lowest proportion reporting risking driving, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or smoking cigarettes.
Finally, the last group was 'libidinous romantic lovers', who made up just 9.6 per cent of the particiapnts, and had sex 10 times per week on average.
'They are most notably characterized by extremely high frequency of sex,' the researchers said.
Libidinous romantic lovers were slightly more likely to be male than female, and had the highest quality of life.
They also were the least likely to report being anxious, worried, or depressed.
The researchers say the findings reflect the fact that 'variation is a necessary component for evolution'.
'That variation has been demonstrated in this study indicates that it is possible that romantic love is still subject to evolutionary selection,' the team said.
'It may also indicate that different groups represent different strategies in terms of mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair bond formation.'
The four types of lovers
1. Mild lovers
20% of the population
Fall in love often but for short amounts of time
More likely to be male than female
Introverted
Have sex twice a week on average
2. Moderate lovers
41% of the population
More likely to be male than female
Least likely to have children
Least likely to be on antidepressants
Have sex 2.5 times a week on average
3. Intense lovers
29% of the population
Most intensely in love
More likely to be female than male
Highest relationship satisfaction
Have sex 3 times a week on average
4. Libidinous lovers
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Bright green meteor zooms past Sydney as auroras dazzle across Australia
A bright green meteor was seen zooming past Sydney on Sunday as spectacular southern lights lit up the skies across most of Australia and New Zealand. A Sydney resident named Tom McCallister posted a video of the meteor, about the size of a basketball, traversing the city's skies. 'Absolutely magnificent meteor seen travelling east to west over Sydney this evening,' Mr McCallister captioned the video posted on Facebook. 'This was looking north at 17:57 local time.' Astrophysicist Brad Tucker, from the Australian National University, agreed that the object was indeed a meteor due to its unique blue-green colour, indicative of iron and nickel content. People across New Zealand and on Australia 's east coast were also treated to a dazzling display of southern lights on Sunday. Many skygazers later shared photos of aurora australis on social media. The space weather phenomenon is caused when bursts of charged particles released from the Sun – known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs – interact with the Earth's magnetic field, creating what's called a geomagnetic storm. The lights are called aurora australis in the southern hemisphere and aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere. Pictures posted on social media showed the sky glowing in hues of pink, red and green, with slight traces of yellow. The colours come from different molecules in the atmosphere getting charged by the Earth's magnetic field. Oxygen gives off a fluorescent green hue while nitrogen molecules interacting with the magnetic field generate a blue, red or pink shade. Auroras are seen when a strong solar storm from the Sun hits the Earth. They are more clearly visible around polar regions since the magnetic field is the strongest there. Astronomers have predicted a strong geomagnetic storm on Sunday and Monday after a powerful CME was seen erupting from the Sun on Friday. The latest CME also caused aurora borealis across most of the continental US as far down south as Alabama. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the possibility of a severe geomagnetic storm remained 'in effect'. 'There are indications that the coronal mass ejection passage is weakening, but the solar wind conditions remain elevated, therefore additional periods of G3-G4 levels remain possible,' the NOAA said, using the designations for strong and severe category storms. 'However, we now anticipate that conditions should weaken enough by tomorrow evening, 2 June, that G1 storm levels are the most likely peak response.' The Sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle.
Daily Mirror
18-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Simple reason why women get worse hangovers than men - it's not what you think
If you think your tolerance for alcohol is worse than the men in your life, you're right - we ask the experts why ladies can't handle booze was well as lads... Men and women may look like they operate the same on the outside, but research shows we are very different when it comes to some things... from healing to heartbeats and even the amount we blink. Here are just a few ways that men and women differ in surprising ways... Men fall in love faster than women Despite their reputation for being the less romantic gender, a new study has found men fall in love twice as fast as women. A team of researchers quizzed more than 800 young people aged 18 to 25 in 33 countries who described themselves as being in love for a study in the Biology of Sex Differences earlier this month. They found that the men tended to fall in love about a month before women on average – over around four weeks, compared to two months for females. Not only did the men in the age group fall in love more quickly, they also reported falling in love more often: 2.6 times, compared to 2.3 times for women. Researchers have put the reason down to our hunter-gatherer past, when women had to be more careful about committing to a mate who would stick around to help care for their offspring. According to study author, biological anthropologist Adam Bode, from The Australian National University: 'Men will have fallen in love sooner than females because the male fitness landscape favours quantity of potential mates over quality, whereas the opposite is true for females.' Women get drunk more quickly We've all been through it. The throbbing headache. The dry mouth. The feeling you could throw up at any moment. But if after a heavy night your male partner feels back to normal sooner than you do, it's not because you've drunk more. It may be down to your gender. Research has found women feel the effects of alcohol sooner because they have much less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in their stomachs, which breaks down alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. This means more alcohol, a toxin, enters the bloodstream unprocessed. The result is that women feel its effects more on their brains – and their livers have to work harder to process it. 'Females have only about one-fifth as much of this enzyme… so women literally get more effect, ounce for ounce, than men,' explains Columbia University's Dr Marianne Legato, founder of The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine in New York. Women have hangovers for longer To make matters worse, women also suffer with hangovers longer. In 2003, researchers at the University of Missouri, US, surveyed over 1,230 students. Women complained of tiredness, dehydration, headaches, nausea, and vomiting more severely the next day than men who'd drunk similar amounts, and it took them longer to shake off symptoms. One reason is that as well as having less of the enzyme they need to break down alcohol, they also have smaller livers. This means their bodies have to work harder for longer to remove the alcohol from their systems. Psychologist Wendy Slutske, who led the research, says: 'This finding makes biological sense –women tend to weigh less and have lower percentages of body water. So they achieve higher degrees of intoxication and more hangovers per alcoholic unit.' Men's wounds heal slower than women's Cut your finger? If you're a man, you may find it takes longer to heal than a similar injury would for your female partner. This is because men have slower healing rates than women at all ages, according to a 2009 study in the Journal of Dermatological Science. One possible reason is that men's skin is around 20 to 25% thicker than women's. This means there is more skin thickness for the body to repair before a wound is healed fully. However, while men's wounds may take longer to heal, the downside is that women's skin ages faster, particularly after menopause. This is because men's skin is thicker due to the effect of the male hormone testosterone. This hormone helps give male skin a higher density of the elastin and collagen scaffolding that keeps skin firm – and this gives male complexions more resilience over time. By contrast, women owe much of their skin thickness, moisture and suppleness more to the effect of the female sex hormone oestrogen. When this drops off after menopause, it leads to a drop in collagen at a rate of about 2% per year, while men's collagen levels decline much more slowly. Combined with a thinner skin, this means women's skin is ageing faster by the time both genders hit their 50s. Men get hungry faster If your male partner complains he's already hungry while you're still full after your last meal, he's not just being greedy – he really does digest his food faster. Researchers have found that men's food moves about a fifth more quickly through their bodies than it does in women. Men's stomachs also empty faster because they have bigger volume and make more acid to break food down. According to gastroenterologists, it takes a woman around 28 hours to completely digest and excrete a meal, compared to around 24 hours for men. Women also have fewer bowel movements. Part of the reason is that women have a slightly longer colon than men, with an added 10 centimetres, so their food has to travel further. Research has also found that female sex hormones alter the make-up of the digestive bile – so women have fewer salts to dissolve foods compared with men. The female heart beats faster The heart has its own electrical system that sends signals telling it when to contract and pump blood. These signals originate from a group of cells in the right atrium, called the sinus node, the heart's pacemaker. The female heart is about two-thirds the size of a man's, weighing around 120g compared to 180g. However, because the female organ is smaller, it has to beat slightly faster to make up for it and distribute the blood around the body: 78 and 82 beats for an adult woman, compared to between 70 and 72 beats per minute for a man of the same age, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. According to the researchers: 'This is largely due to the size of the heart, typically smaller in females than males. The smaller female heart, pumping less blood with each beat, needs to beat at a faster rate to match the larger male heart's output.' Women blink more often and faster Every minute we blink repeatedly to spread optical fluids over the surface of our eyes to keep them moist. However, women tend to blink slightly more often and more quickly than men, around 19 times a minute for females versus 11 for males, according to a 2008 study in the journal Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics. Experts believe the reason is down to hormone differences, which contribute to the different make-up of this lubrication, which is made up of mucus, water and oil. According to eye surgeon Glenn Carp of the London Vision Clinic: 'Men have more testosterone which holds these tears together better and keeps their eyes well moistened.' Female hormones may be another reason women blink more. We don't know why but studies have found women blink the most when they are taking contraceptive pills containing oestrogen.
The Sun
12-05-2025
- The Sun
Image shows Mars 4 billion years ago revealing OCEAN world – and scientists say ‘lost' sea may still be hiding on planet
Sean Keach, Head of Technology and Science Published: Invalid Date, A LOST Martian ocean may be hiding beneath the red planet's surface. Today Mars is a cold and dry desert – but it may have been covered in rivers, lakes, and seas around four billion years ago. 6 6 Even as recently as 3.1 billion years ago, it may have still had "shimmering" liquid water in large quantities. Scientists say that some of this escaped to space or froze on the polar caps – as well as the water that was trapped in minerals. But scientists say that a there is still a significant amount of "missing" water that may be lurking under the ground. In fact, this missing water is enough to cover the entire planet in an ocean "at least 700 metres deep, and perhaps up to 900 metres deep", according to Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić, of the Australian National University. The scientists have used seismic data from Nasa 's InSight probe, which launched in 2018. And this may have revealed a vast ocean underground. "We uncovered evidence that the seismic waves slow down in a layer between 5.4 and 8 kilometres below the surface," Tkalčić explained. "Which could be because of the presence of liquid water at these depths." Nasa's InSight uses a seismometer to "listen" to the inside of Mars. And scientists were able to track down a "significant underground anomaly". This was a layer where the vibrations were moving more slowly – a "low-velocity layer". The scientists believe this is very porous rock that has filled up with liquid water – just like a spone. "We calculated the 'aquifer layer' on Mars could hold enough water to cover the planet in a global ocean 520–780m deep," said Tkalčić. "Several times as much water as is held in Antarctica's ice sheet." 6 The downside is that the seismic data only covers a small slice of Mars. So scientists will need to get more seismometers to the red planet to fully map these potential water layers. If they can find these water layers and drill into them, it could lead to a major breakthrough in the hunt for alien life. "Liquid water is essential for life as we know it. On Earth, microbes thrive in deep, water-filled rock," Tkalčić explained. "Could similar life, perhaps relics of ancient Martian ecosystems, persist in these reservoirs? There's only one way to find out. Tkalčić continued: "The water may be a lifeline for more complex organisms, too – such as future human explorers. "Purified, it could provide drinking water, oxygen, or fuel for rockets. "Of course, drilling kilometres deep on a distant planet is a daunting challenge." 6 MARS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Here's a quick guide to Mars... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and Earth's space neighbour. The blood-red planet was named by the ancient Romans after their god of war. It's about 2,100 miles wide and roughly half the size of Earth. The planet is around 142 million miles from the Sun on average, with sunlight taking 13 minutes to reach the red planet's surface. A single Martian day lasts about 24.6 hours – while a year lasts 669.6 sols, or 687 Earth days. The planet has two small moons named Phobos and Deimos. It's home to Olympus Mons, which is the largest volcano in our solar system and around three times the height of Mt Everest. Temperatures can range from 20C to -153C. Picture Credit: Nasa / Reuters Scientists think that this lost water could account for the "missing" water on the planet. It may have ended up underground by seeping through cracks in the crust. Those cracks may have been formed after Mars was "heavily bombarded by meteorites". "Deep beneath the surface, warmer temperatures would keep the water in a liquid state – unlike the frozen layers nearer the surface," Tkalčić explained. 6 6 This research was published in the National Science Review, and authored by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Australian National University, and University of Milano-Bicocca.
