“In the past, sex and number of partners were related to reproductive success. Today, however, there is no correlation,” concludes a study by two psychologists at Washington State University.
It’s actually something pretty obvious, yet it’s important to be reminded of it because it’s disappearing from the discussion. The intuitive misconception, in fact, works with the funnel model. When 100 couples meet, 80 of them find a crush on each other, 60 have sex, and 30 get pregnant. On the face of it, this makes sense because pregnancy is impossible without sex and sex is impossible unless people meet. However, it actually points to other lifestyles.
Someone can live a great life, have a frequent and varied sex life and not be interested in having children. Or they can be a couple where they have 7 kids and have sex once a year. And all sorts of other combinations.
There are other issues related to childbearing. Like the ability to maintain a long-term relationship with the same partner.