iPhone users are more promiscuous

I should just automatically bring the OkTrends feed into FlowingData. In their never-ending quest to understand humankind, the group from online dating site OkCupid analyzes 11.4 million opinions on what makes a “great” photo – as in makes people want to date you. Some of the findings include: photos from Panasonic Micro 4/3s were best received, “photo attractiveness” decreased by age, and the Flash adds seven years.

There’s one finding that’s got everyone buzzing though. iPhone users have more sexual partners. See the graph above and below for the numbers.

The analysis describes:

The chart pretty much speaks for itself; I’ll just say that the numbers for all three brands are for 30 year-olds, so it’s not a matter of older, more experienced people preferring one phone to another. We found this data as part of our general camera-efficacy analysis: we crossed all kinds of user behaviors with the camera models and found we had data on the number of sexual partners for 9,785 people with smart phones.

Now before you go out and buy an iPhone let’s not forget that correlation isn’t causation. That is to say, people who have more sexual partners might be more likely to buy an iPhone. The iPhone might say something about the owner rather than the other way around.

Also – and this is the important part – we don’t know anything about sexual frequency. We just know the number of partners. It could be that Android users are more likely to be in a committed relationship and getting busy on a regular basis. Maybe iPhone users take more trips to Las Vegas, where prostitution is legal or are more likely to be polygamists. Then again, maybe iPhone users really do have more sex. It’s all about context.

Deeper analysis is required before we can conclude iPhone users do it more often. I’m sure we’ll see that study soon enough though. Maybe bedpost can add a field for phone type.

[Thanks, Chris]

29 Comments

  • Leanne Trinder August 11, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    Thanks! Another great post.

    Yes, I have a problem with their statement: “As you can see, the general pattern is that more complex cameras take better pictures.” This may be true but it also might be that (in this sample) people with SLRs are putting more effort into which photo they post online.

    But I did enjoy the comment “iPhone users aren’t just getting fucked by Apple”

  • That data might need to normalise to time in relationship vs time single too.

    • Let me guess … Android user?

      • I think you are right! And I think you figured that out because the comment was intelligent, thoughtful and showed an advanced understanding of both the english language and statistics. This is as opposed to an iPhone fanboy who would have simply posted a pretty picture largely unrelated to the topic. I take the unrelated comment back since they would have been sexting.

    • Completely agree that the data needs to be more separated and weighted upon the two differentiations you mentioned.

  • perhaps the less expensive android that i am considering says spending cash may be the criteria

  • Android users might just be too geeky and blackberry users just too busy. Relatively, of course. :)

  • …or maybe it’s the ease of the data access that the iPhone offers.

    Connecting to other people through apps such as facebook and craigslist is a very easy and simple thing to do through the iPhone. And also think about how easy it is to take a picture and/ or video and post it on your facebook, adultfriendfinder account, etc… And now we have facetime; the exchange of spoken & written words and now an moving image for real time connecting.

    I guess what I’m trying say is the medium might offer a simpler method of connection. It’s all about the connecting and this product might make that process easier to do.

    therefore, more connection = increase in interactivity, which in turn = exchanges in bodily fluids… sex!

  • Perhaps iPhone users are more likely to exaggerate in order to feel superior. I have one and I do.

  • What about Windows Mobile users? Oh… I see it now… that perfectly horizontal black line on the graph.

  • Statistician August 12, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    What this graph mostly suggests is that iPhone users have sex younger. The three lines are roughly parallel and equally spaced. So the number of partners is increasing at the same rate over time for all three groups, but the iPhone users have a head start.

    Though there is a suggestion that iPhone users play the market a bit harder between ages 24 and 26.

    I don’t own a cell phone. And I am NOT a virgin.

  • Roger Aleph August 12, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    May be Iphone users have cultural patters that make them free and less conventional… May be is this: I love Mac = Im free = Let’s have sex…? By the way Im Nokia friendly…

  • One big point to remember in looking at this data, is that it is all based on a sample consisting of users of the dating website, which very likely it is not representative of the entire population of users of a particular cell phone. Thus, the findings (eg, iPhone users have more partners, etc.) are not necessarily valid for all users, but only for users who are likely to use a dating website. The research geek in me felt the need to point this out… ;)

  • There is a serious oversight with this analysis. You are focused on the elevation of the figures (i.e., comparing the y-intercepts) when in fact the slopes tell a completely different story. Without access to the raw data, it is not possible to do the regression (but please feel free to forward it to me), but it looks like the iPhone slope may be less than that of the blackberry users. Why is this interesting? If so, that would be iPhone users tend to have a converging number of partners while Blackberry users tend to increase in promiscuity with age — the obvious significance being that the iPhone users find stable happiness while Blackberry users spend the rest of their lives searching for it.

  • or that many iPhone users are, finally, giving up sex

    As a side note, there is sex after 40..

  • I wonder what the iPhone statistics are in relation to cross-sex vs same-sex relationships though…

  • Maybe the iPhone users just keep trying to make a successful connection because of all the dropped calls.

  • Self-reported number of sexual partners on a dating website. I would not trust the initial data not to be biased. Maybe, Blackberry users have different biases than iPhone users.

    What about male/female proportions in the iphone users set versus BB users set ? We all know that men overreport and women underreport the number of sexual partners. Well that would even skew the distribution is the other side.

    I would guess that there is some truth to it. I see it at work. People concerned about apparence, seduction, going out, being trendy, partying, have almost all an iphone.

    This is just fashion. I guess people that wear Gucci have more sex too, because of the type of people that want to wear Gucci, that have the means for this, that are in circles where it matters, etc.

    So we could conclude than having an iphone is caused by wanting to seduce and actively trying to be seductive, which is correlated to actually seducing ? Cell phones have always been a status symbol and iphones are the hot item today.

  • Crap, I find myself an outlier yet again. It is tuff being a black swan and black sheep at the same time. What is standard dev? Trying to figure out how above the mean I am.

  • Does this not suggest that either a) these women are doing each other, or b) that they prefer guys who don’t have smartphones?

  • Lets underscore that “correlation isn’t causation. That is to say, people who have more sexual partners might be more likely to buy an iPhone. The iPhone might say something about the owner rather than the other way around.”

    Given the short window of the iPhone’s existence, I think we can safely assume that the latter is the case.