The methodology is prone to errors

A new study conducted by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) found that religious couples enjoy better relationships and better sex lives . The Institute for Family Studies is a known conservative think-tank pushing a religious agenda. When summarized, the new study says that conservative religious wives are the happiest, closely followed by the spiritual progressives.

High-quality marriages are reported by 73 percent of the polled wives. All women who participated in the survey identify themselves as the bearer of conservative gender values. They attend religious services frequently with their husbands. In matters of relationship quality, the marital happiness of the woman follows a J-curve with women both on the right and on the left, enjoying a better-quality marriage compared to the middle. Right-wing wives reported the most satisfying sex life.

Conservatives, elated at the results of the survey, did not forget to slam left-of-center and liberals. David French, of the National Review, even concluded that sexual revolution could frequently import its kind of unhappiness-which could also be an absence of sex.

There is a caveat though: the responses do not narrate the full story. The Institute for Family Studies is not only known for their conservative worldview, but it also has history of taking an anti-LGBTQ stand. The organization was helped in its survey by the Brigham Young University affiliate Wheatley Institution, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). This does not correlate to poor quality work, but the affiliations should be published in their research.

Most troubling of all, the raw data wasn’t provided. The survey did not include gay couples as The LDS Church still opposes same-sex marriages. Another problem is the numbers are all self-reported. The problem with such a strategy is that people present themselves to the world as they see fit-which may not necessarily be the actual reality. It means that people with extraordinary sex lives may regard them as not entirely satisfying, but a person who gets minimal sex may tell the world of the superb sex life which that person supposedly enjoys. An individual under pressure will lie even in an anonymous survey, and people who reside in a religious bubble will think they are enjoying their lives.

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