Celebrities including Tiger Woods, Russell Brand, and most recently, Jada Pinkett Smith have all said that they have struggled with sex addiction at some point in their lives. A slight majority of Americans (52%) agree that sex addiction is a real clinical disorder, according to new data from YouGov.
Women (54%) are more likely than men (49%) to say that sex addiction is a real clinical disorder. Another 28% of men said they don’t think it’s a clinical disorder, compared to only 19% of women who chose this same response.
Democrats more likely than Republicans (59% vs. 49%) to say that sex addiction is a real clinical disorder. Nearly one-third of Republicans (30%) say sex addiction is not a clinical disorder, compared to 19% of Democrats who chose the same response.
Across different age groups there were few statistically significant differences, though interestingly, people aged 18-24 were slightly less likely than their older peers to say sex addiction is a real clinical disorder.
Overall, these responses are largely similar to responses to the same question from August 2016, when 51% of people said they thought sex addiction was a real clinical disorder, while 24% said it was not. Similarly, in 2016, women were more likely than men (53% vs 49%) to say it was a real disorder, as were Democrats, 60% of whom said it was real compared to 51% of Republicans.
Image: Getty