Study: Men who do dishes have less sex

SEATTLE - A man who helps his wife with housework does not have more sex than a man who sticks to "manly" chores, a new study found.

"Media interest in the debate has crystallized around claims that men who participate in housework get more sex," the authors of the study in the February 2013 edition of The American Sociological Review write.

Not so, according to researchers at the University of Washington.

A new study "found that married couples who report having the most sex are those in which men do a greater share of 'typically male' tasks and women do a greater share of 'typically female' tasks.

"Results show that both husbands and wives in couples with more traditional housework arrangements report higher sexual frequency, suggesting the importance of gender display rather than marital exchange for sex between heterosexual married partners," the study authors wrote.

The researchers argue "this is because in marriages, spouses perceive their partners as very feminine or very masculine when they do gender-typical housework. Over time, greater perceptions of masculinity or femininity lead to more attraction and thus more sex."