# Would you lie about your number of partners?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 24, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481 "2005-08-24T20:26:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/41 "2005-08-25T22:31:57Z")
> [@Soapbox Monkey](#):
>
> If one is intercourse, the second is other miscellaneous sexual contact…
>
> what’s the third list? :eek:
The people who would be on the first two lists if you weren’t so ashamed.
---
### Author:  [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/42 "2005-08-25T22:37:42Z")
I have 3 lists, too:
- Actual intercourse
- Oral sex only
- “Making Out,” i.e., “naughty bits” were touched/fondled, but not oral sex or intercourse ever took place.
If I include all 3 lists, it’s 15
List 1 - 13
List 2 - 1
List 3 - 1
List 1 is much larger because 9 times out of 10, List 3 or 2 led to List 1.
---
### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/43 "2005-08-25T22:39:39Z")
> [@Soapbox Monkey](#):
>
> If one is intercourse, the second is other miscellaneous sexual contact…
>
> what’s the third list? :eek:
Those two are lists of men. The other is a list of women.
I have a disturbing need to categorize things. And people. I could break it down further, but that idea worries even me
---
### Author:  [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/44 "2005-08-25T22:44:15Z")
> [@Harimad-sol](#):
>
> Question: do you count just people with whom you’ve had intercourse, or do you also count those with whom you’ve had sexual contact?
36! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/45 "2005-08-25T22:58:18Z")
> [@Soapbox Monkey](#):
>
> If one is intercourse, the second is other miscellaneous sexual contact…
>
> what’s the third list?
People you’ve dated but not “done anything” with? There are a few on that list for me.
---
### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/46 "2005-08-25T23:01:00Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#):
>
> 36! 🙂
36!? 36 [factorial](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Factorial.html)? Google says that’s 3.72x10[sup]41[/sup].
:eek:
OK, I know, I’m a big old math geek. 😃
---
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/47 "2005-08-25T23:35:52Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#):
>
> 36! 🙂
Try not to suck any dick on your way across the message board!
I’d tell the truth if I answered at all. I lied once when the number was 0 and I wanted it to be otherwise, but I felt foolish and immature for doing so. I mean, I _was_ foolish an immature, but I didn’t usually feel like it.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/48 "2005-08-26T00:28:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> what’s the third list? :eek:
Don’t you mean:
– What’s the third list? :o
---
### Author:  [@Jillyvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillyvn)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/49 "2005-08-26T02:36:52Z")
I’d tell, I guess, since my number is fairly low - but I’d never ask.
Instead, I’d be more apt to ask about their last std test.
I don’t care how many partners a lover has had in the past, I just want to know they are safe when we start sleeping together.
---
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/50 "2005-08-26T02:51:54Z")
I’m amazed that most people can even answer the question. I have no idea. I guess it is the hundreds and not the thousands. I’d just assume most people lie.
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/51 "2005-08-26T03:06:14Z")
(a) I’d consider it kinda tasteless to bring up until the relationship was at a very advanced stage. And even then…
(b) I’m not proud to say it, but it’s true, my first thought would be _“uh-oh – Is it a Trick Question? A test? Is she looking for a **true** answer or a “right” answer?”_
(BTW, haven’t faced that question this century)
© I would never demand, and conversely will not volunteer, specific statistical tables. I’ll fight hard to keep it generic and nonspecific, out of respect to all parties. (Nobody needs to feel s/he is being compared.) Specifics will be provided on a strict need-to-know basis, said need having to be adequately explained.
(d) That said, I am aware that even for people within my generational range, every person will have such a widely different notion of what is a little or a lot. By the time it’s proper to make this inquiry, I should hope the person has gotten to know my personality well enough to say “Well, yes, that is in character for JRD”.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/52 "2005-08-26T03:39:18Z")
I’m a terrible liar. I would be honest. My number is neither too low nor too high. (Somewhere between 5 and 10, I don’t keep count.)
---
### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481/53 "2005-08-26T05:07:42Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> (c) I would never demand, and conversely will not volunteer, specific statistical tables. I’ll fight hard to keep it generic and nonspecific, out of respect to all parties. (Nobody needs to feel s/he is being compared.) Specifics will be provided on a strict need-to-know basis, said need having to be adequately explained.
I keep the lists more for my own benefit. I would never answer the query right off with, “Which list do you want?” since that is more likely to be greeted with 😕 than anything else. Nor would I ask someone to break their experiences down in such a fashion, unless the relationship was sufficiently advanced to make my curiosity at least a bit less weird, I knew the person was someone who would actually answer such a question, or both. I have had lovers whose total numbers I did not know and did not care to know. As **Rebekkah** points out, their std status is far more relevant.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-lie-about-your-number-of-partners/318481.md?page=2)