response 42 of 293:

Dec 5 02:19 UTC 2003

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu:8080/GSS/rnd1998/reports/t-
reports/topic18.htm

Adult Sexual Behavior in 1989: Number of Partners, Frequency, and Risk

Tom W. Smith NORC

University of Chicago
November, 1989 Revised February, 1989 Revised January, 1991

GSS Topical Report No. 18 Paper presented to the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, February, 1990, New Orleans 
Publication Notes: A revised version of this paper was published in 
Family Planning Perspectives, 23 (May/June, 1991), 102-107. This 
research was done for the General Social Survey Project directed by 
James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith. The project is funded by the National 
Science Foundation, Grant No. SES-87- 18467.

 . . .Despite much chatter about open marriages and "swinging" and the 
contention by pop and pseudo-scientific studies about the normalcy of 
infidelity (Smith, 1988; Smith, 1989a), Americans actually seem to 
live up to the norm of fidelity fairly well (Greeley, Michael, and 
Smith, 1990).  Over a given year 1.5% of married people have a sex 
partners other than their spouse (Table 3). . . .