{"id":53056,"date":"2026-03-20T03:45:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=53056"},"modified":"2026-03-20T05:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:55:07","slug":"masturbation-frequency-among-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/masturbation-frequency-among-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Masturbation Frequency Among Members"},"content":{"rendered":"<div title=\"1\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First for the caveats and perspectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Masturbation is a human behavior, worthy of study and quantification like any other behavior. It\u2019s a real thing, it\u2019s a thing some people do. Furthermore, it\u2019s a thing the Church has taken a position on. Therefore, it is fair game for quantification vis-a-vis Church members as long as it is treated appropriately. It has been heartening to see BYU professors, for example, publishing frequently in top sexuality journals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A lot of rhetoric around masturbation (perhaps influenced by <em>Seinfeld&#8217;s<\/em> famous competition episode) sort of takes for granted that just about everybody masturbates, so the world is divided up between hypocrites and authentic people when, as we&#8217;ll see, a significant portion of the population doesn&#8217;t masturbate on any frequent basis. Sometimes there&#8217;s this quasi-freudian, quasi-intellectual take that not masturbating bottles things up and causes mental issues, but there&#8217;s really no evidence for that perspective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There&#8217;s an ongoing effort to imply that the Church has backtracked and now has no position on masturbation simply because there hasn&#8217;t been an explicit &#8220;little factories&#8221; talk for a while, <a href=\"https:\/\/mormonr.org\/qnas\/y4j20\/masturbation\">but you have to really stretch the evidence to see that<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, with that, how often do self-identified Church members masturbate? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thearda.com\/data-archive?fid=FS14&amp;tab=2\">I found one survey<\/a> from about ten years ago that has enough members (332) that asks the question that we can do a quick analysis (at this sample size I&#8217;m not worrying about weights).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div title=\"10\">When did you last masturbate?<\/div>\n<div title=\"1\"><\/div>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"351\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"177\" \/>\n<col span=\"2\" width=\"87\" \/><\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"177\" height=\"21\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"87\">Male (%)<\/td>\n<td width=\"87\">Female (%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Refused<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"1\">1<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"0\">0<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Today<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"8\">8<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"1\">1<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Yesterday<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"9\">9<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"5\">5<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">2-4 days ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"11\">11<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">5-6 days ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"4\">4<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"1\">1<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">1-2 weeks ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">3-4 weeks ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"1\">1<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than one month ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"4\">4<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"9\">9<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than six months ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than a year ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"29\">29<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"21\">21<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Never have<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"20\">20<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl63\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"51\">51<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>So no, contrary to popular perception, a significant portion of Latter-day Saints simply don&#8217;t masturbate much if at all. Specifically, about four out of ten Latter-day Saint men masturbated in the last month, while 14% of women did the same.<\/p>\n<p>What about non-Latter-day Saints? Here about seven out of ten men have masturbated in the past month, while about four out of ten women have. So Latter-day Saints clearly masturbate less than non-Latter-day Saints, but a majority of non-member women and about a quarter of non-member men haven&#8217;t masturbated in the last month, so the Seinfeldian tableau on this in popular culture where everybody&#8217;s doing it on a frequent basis is inaccurate.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div title=\"10\"><\/div>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"374\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"200\" \/>\n<col span=\"2\" width=\"87\" \/><\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"xl65\" width=\"200\" height=\"21\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div data-col=\"2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl65\" width=\"87\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div data-col=\"3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Male %<\/td>\n<td width=\"87\">Female %<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Refused<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"2\">2<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Today<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"13\">13<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Yesterday<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"16\">16<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">2-4 days ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"20\">20<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"11\">11<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">5-6 days ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"8\">8<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">1-2 weeks ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"9\">9<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"10\">10<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">3-4 weeks ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"4\">4<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than one month ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"6\">6<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"10\">10<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than six months ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"3\">3<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"7\">7<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">More than a year ago<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"10\">10<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"15\">15<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td height=\"21\">Never have<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"9\">9<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"xl66\" align=\"right\">\n<div title=\"25\">25<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First for the caveats and perspectives.\u00a0 Masturbation is a human behavior, worthy of study and quantification like any other behavior. It\u2019s a real thing, it\u2019s a thing some people do. Furthermore, it\u2019s a thing the Church has taken a position on. Therefore, it is fair game for quantification vis-a-vis Church members as long as it is treated appropriately. It has been heartening to see BYU professors, for example, publishing frequently in top sexuality journals. &nbsp; A lot of rhetoric around masturbation (perhaps influenced by Seinfeld&#8217;s famous competition episode) sort of takes for granted that just about everybody masturbates, so the world is divided up between hypocrites and authentic people when, as we&#8217;ll see, a significant portion of the population doesn&#8217;t masturbate on any frequent basis. Sometimes there&#8217;s this quasi-freudian, quasi-intellectual take that not masturbating bottles things up and causes mental issues, but there&#8217;s really no evidence for that perspective. &nbsp; There&#8217;s an ongoing effort to imply that the Church has backtracked and now has no position on masturbation simply because there hasn&#8217;t been an explicit &#8220;little factories&#8221; talk for a while, but you have to really stretch the evidence to see that. Okay, with that, how often do self-identified Church [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3022,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexuality","category-social-sciences-and-economics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53056"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53110,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53056\/revisions\/53110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}