Final answer:
The Laumann study indicates that there are significant differences in sexual experience across the U.S. population, highlighting that married couples are more sexually active than singles and pointing out the existence of a sexual double standard regarding the number of sexual partners men and women have.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the Laumann study of sexual patterns among U.S. adults, there are striking differences in sexual experience within the U.S. population. This conclusion is supported by recent trends which indicate that sexual practices can differ greatly among groups. For instance, it has been found that married couples have sex more frequently than do singles, suggesting that there is no uniform sexual experience that can be applied to all individuals.
In addition, the notion of the sexual double standard has been well-documented, with men often being permitted, socially, to have more sexual partners than women. This is substantiated by CDC findings, which report that, on average, a thirty-five-year-old man has had twice as many opposite-sex sexual partners as a thirty-five-year-old woman. U.S. attitudes towards sexuality are also notably more conservative than those of other industrialized nations, with higher percentages of U.S. respondents deeming premarital sex, sex before the age of 16, extramarital sex, and homosexuality as 'always wrong' compared to averages in other countries.