Maybe NSFW: What does this chart imply about the behavior of different generations?

Well the spike in the 40s was likely due to WW2. A lot of men overseas were having relations that may have involved those with STDs.
The Spike in the mid 70s is likely to do with the “free love” state of mind, although that was more prevalent in the late 60s. Maybe it took awhile to get around.
After that the AIDS epidemic came to light and a lot more people used protection.

@anniereborn Thank you. I have been trying to explain to a slightly older woman AIDS scared the hell out of all future generations. She has been expressing the opinion that I am exaggerating, and people today are having as much free love as the boomers.

It’s still seems like free love with condoms.

I think that the amount of sex has been at a relative constant since the 1970s. It went up around then (free love, as others have said) but I don’t think people have stopped screwing in the last 40 years.

My guess is that it’s a combination of the following:

- women (and men) started discussing things more, and being safer about STDs, before they have sex. In other words, women started speaking up for themselves.

- AIDS scare (although that wasn’t seen as a serious threat until the 80s)

- Condom availability – it was no longer considered embarrassing for a man (or woman) to by condoms, so they did, and used them.

I do think that @Imadethisupwithnoforethought ‘s friend is correct people are still sleeping with anyone they want, but they’re smarter about it.

@elbanditoroso I disagree. I think you might be underestimating how many people they slept with compared to your perceptions as to what is typical. They may have an entirely different idea of what was normal.

I agree with all of the above. I’m a 70’s survivor and really glad I missed the whole aids scare.
Wild times they were. haha

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought – sure, of course I can be wrong. That’s why I called it ‘a guess’.

I don’t know that there are statistics around that can prove it one way or another, however.

Okay. A hypothesis and potential variable that no one has yet considered: Leaded fuel.

There’s good evidence that the neurotoxicity of tetraethyllead was a causal mechanism in higher crime rates and lower IQ levels during the 70s and 80s, marked by a significant degradation in the volume of the frontal cortex.

I’m wondering if the same effect on people’s brains may have led to more irresponsible and reckless sexual behaviour. Incidentally, there is also a strong correlation between leaded fuel use and teenage pregnancy rates (with a 17 year lag.)

My guess is that the reduction in gonorrhoea in the 80s could be partly explained by the AIDS scare, although my understanding is that other venereal diseases have not followed the same patterns of rise and decline. I expect there are some unique characteristics of different diseases which factor into that.