In this age of dating apps, it’s safe to assume that most people no longer wait until the third date to have sex with someone they like. The technology has made dating so simple that one swipe to the right is all it takes to start a flirty chat with anyone that catches your eye. The next thing you know, you’ve made plans to go out on a date or meet at your place to chill out and watch a movie. More often than not this will end in a night of no strings attached sex. But is casual sex really as common as it appears to be?
According to a recent poll conducted by Groupon, one night stands are becoming a relic of an era gone by. In fact, despite all the technology that seems to have made dating much easier, it turns out that people today wait longer than ever before to have sex with the person they’re dating.
The Eighth Date Rule
More than 2,000 participants in the poll answered to different question regarding their dating habits. When asked how long they wait before taking their relationship to the next level, most of them gave somewhat surprising responses. On average, the participants said they waited until the eighth date before becoming more intimate with their partners. Not that long ago, sex would usually happen following the third date. Apparently, things have changed quite a bit in just a few years.
If we take a look at the responses sorted by the gender of the participants, we’ll see that most men feel like sex shouldn’t happen before the fifth date. Women go even further in their responses, saying that at least nine dates should take place before they start having sex with their boyfriends.
When asked if they would be likely to engage in a one night stand or have sex right after the first date, nearly nine times more men than women responded positively. Still, just eight percent of the women and less than 30 percent of the men felt that having sex on the first date was “the right thing to do.”
The Dating Habits of Americans
These results suggest that most people wait to have sex until they’re certain they’ve met the right one. So, if dating plays such an important part in their love lives, what types of activities do they consider ideal for the first date? According to their responses, nothing seems to beat the good old dinner and movie combo. In addition to this, participants also spoke very favorably about going out for a drink in a nice bar, as well as enjoying a cup of coffee and a pleasant chat with their date in a romantic café.
Not everything is so black-and-white here, though. About 10 percent of the participants have said that they would let their date choose the restaurant where they’ll have a dinner. However, if they were unhappy with the place he or she selected, there were likely be no second date. What’s more, even if everything went according to plan, if their date dared make a suggestion of what item to order from the menu or attempted to grab a bite of whatever they were having, it would be a definite deal-breaker.
When their dates became awkward for whatever reason, one-third of the polled people said they had to resort to different tricks to find their way out of them. Their go-to excuses included making up some other plans they had forgotten about, pretending to feel tired or ill, and – yes – even arranging faked phone calls with their friends beforehand.
All this is good to know, especially in light of the finding that most people need at least five dates do decide if they want to be in a monogamous relationship with the person they’re currently seeing. So, if you play your cards right on the first date and then repeat the success on the next few dates, you may finally find yourself at the start of a long-lasting relationship with someone you truly like.
