Autoeroticism In America

Below is a nationwide "age progression" of Americans, 18 to 40. Again, we're using color intensities to show how people answered one of the thousands of match questions on OkCupid.

The question for today's map:
Is masturbation your most frequent type of sexual release?
age of the U.S. population

By moving the slider to change the age of the map's data set, you can watch attitudes change as people get older. Again, this is another map we generated for our last post—we thought is was kind of amusing, but it didn't make the final cut.

As you can see if you play with the slider a bit, Pittsburgh, PA is deep blue pretty much the whole time. What's behind this, I don't know. Rustbelt loneliness? Exceptional municipal libido? Obscure tax credits? I'd be interested in a Pittsburgher's perspective, if there's one out there.

Anyhow, here's a quick line chart showing the nationwide change over age, 18 to 40. I've broken the data out by gender, so you can see how men and women differ in their approaches to the matter at hand:


The red dots indicate highs and lows. That's all for today. Until then, don't end up like this guy:



12 Responses to “Autoeroticism In America”

  1. Regina29 says:

    Hey, I’m not sure if the red areas mean people are having more sex or more sexual frustration!….or maybe lower libidos for that matter…or just don’t want to admit they masturbate which may be a factor in the fundamentalist belt/conservative religious areas.

    Since, I assume, these are single people, I certainly hope that condom sales are booming in the red areas! If not, you should be selling this information to condom companies to help the public health and your profit margins ;-) !!!

    Peace, Regina

  2. rob says:

    Check out Denver! Fascinating to see that young people masturbate rarely (however less has been calculated), while relatively Older folks are intensely self-indulgent. LOL

  3. Stillers says:

    Check out Pittsburgh! It is blue through and through! Go Stillers!

  4. Sam says:

    lmao at Pittsburgh

  5. Commentator says:

    Not sure who the “Stillers” (see March 19 comment) are other than Ben & Jerry.

    One possible reason for lack of sex with others in Pittsburgh is that Pittsburghers spend so much time watching, reading about, talking about, and thinking about sports that they don’t have time for sex with others. But at least they know how to spell Steelers.

    A more serious reason is that Pittsburghers are more nervous about having sex with others than in other major cities. For example, some gay men in Pittsburgh say the easiest way to get sex is to go out of town, or find someone in Pittsburgh visiting from out of town.

  6. Commentator says:

    I tried to leave a Pittsburgher’s perspective, as you requested, but you ignored or deleted it.

  7. nrthan says:

    Have you ever tried driving around Pittsburgh? Sex is not worth it.

  8. 613 The Evil says:

    “I’ve broken the data out by gender, so you can see how men and women differ in their approaches to the matter at hand:” Hehe, “matter at hand”, hehe. Interesting fact is that women who declared that masturbation is their primal form of sexual experience are more than men in USA. I am not sure that this is a global phenomenon…

  9. Renegade Researcher says:

    “Interesting fact is that women who declared that masturbation is their primal form of sexual experience are more than men in USA. I am not sure that this is a global phenomenon…”

    It is completely unsurprising. More men than women are willing to have casual sex, and to do so more often: this is widely known. Therefore the proportion of women who rely on masturbation will be higher than the proportion of men who do so. This will be the case almost anywhere you go.

    In general, I have to point out that this post misrepresents its sample: the sample is single Americans, not just Americans. A likely explanation is that the kind of person who masturbates rather than having casual sex is more likely to settle into a long-term relationship earlier in life than the kind of person who has casual sex routinely.

  10. WI is Fun says:

    I noticed that the area around Madison, Wisconsin is also consistently blue. Some people just really love to masturbate.

  11. Jeme says:

    This blog often cites OKCupid statistics that differ among folks in different ages groups as implying certain changes over a person’s lifetime. I’m inclined to believe that many more of these differences are “generational” — meaning that they represent changes in prevailing cultural ideas at various critical times in a person’s social development — rather than indicating how some hypothetical average person would respond at different points in their one, continuous life.

    In the post about profile pictures, the authors noted that certain kinds of postured photos are more appealing to younger people but became less appealing as a person aged. I submit that the cohort that isn’t turned off by the bathroom mirror ab-shot (or what have you) will continue to accept that kind of picture for the rest of their lives whereas the folks who are older now would have been just as turned off by pictures of that type when they were eighteen as they are now.

    This post belies similar assumptions. My guess from this data is that younger folks feel less embarrassed about their masturbation than older folks and the appearance of this difference is amplified by older folks’ feelings that they should answer their questions ideally rather than honestly.*

    * Rational and consistent arguments for assuming these factors can be provided upon request.

  12. KL says:

    I noticed central Florida is blue. Orlando has a high population of gay men. This leaves the females with few options.