NEW YORK — Try as we might to keep things PG, sex is a driving force behind many aspects of human behavior. Most people do a pretty good job of pushing sexual thoughts out of their heads until the appropriate time and place, but a new survey has found that sex still pops into most adults heads eight times per day on average.

Funded by Pure Romance, the survey aimed to discover just how comfortable Americans are with sexuality, by asking 2,000 adults how often they consciously think and talk about sex. They found that the average person speaks about sex in one way or another five times per day.

A significant portion of respondents (65%) said they were comfortable sharing their sex lives with others, and 29% even said they were “very comfortable” swapping sexual stories.

Among the survey’s other findings, it wasn’t terribly surprising to see that adults are most comfortable discussing sex with their spouse or partner. Additionally, three in five respondents said they regularly discuss their sex lives with their best friends.

Perhaps even more interesting than these revelations is why Americans are talking about sex so much. More than half of respondents (54%) say they have sought out advice from others on how to improve their performance in the bedroom. People are seeking sex advice in other ways as well; 43% say they’ve read sex advice articles online and 32% of respondents say they’ve read through sex articles in a magazine while using the bathroom.

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“Speaking openly about sex is so important because there are still a lot of people who find the subject taboo. If we’re being honest about sexual desire and sexual health—even if it’s just a casual conversation with friends—we’re helping fight that stigma, one conversation at a time,” comments Pure Romance Founder Patty Brisben in a statement.

The majority (59%) of respondents also reported using sex toys to increase their pleasure. That being said, many respondents also said that sex isn’t always as pleasurable as they would like, with 49% admitting to experiencing an embarrassing sexual failure at one point.

Surprisingly, 44% of those who had dealt with a sexual failure said they had openly discussed it with others. In fact, the survey seems to suggest that Americans are quick to share their sexual histories with more than one person; the average adult will discuss their sex lives with four different people.

Most of the time, these discussions happen in the privacy of one’s home, and 41% of respondents say they like to discuss sex over a glass of wine, while 39% prefer coffee or tea.

The survey was conducted by OnePoll.

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