If you're a glorious sinner in need of a nice, long vacation, but unsure which country will best suit your lifestyle, fear not. The Pew Research Center has gathered the necessary deets to wish you bon voyage to a welcoming land of heathens!
Pew asked citizens from 40 different countries for their opinions on hot-button topics such as extramarital affairs and premarital sex. Participants were asked to determine if the issue was:
a. Morally Acceptable
b. Morally Unacceptable
c. Not a Moral Issue
Extramartial Affairs
Not surprisingly, most countries weren't down with extramarital affairs. That is, except, for France (but of course!), where 40% of folks believe on-the-side rendezvousing isn't a moral issue. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, le Parisian! Conversely, exactly 0% of those in Lebanon and Pakistan believe cheating is morally acceptable. The U.S. falls somewhere in between: 84% believe it's morally unacceptable, 10% don't think it's a moral issue and just 4% think it's A-OK.
Premarital Sex
The less "sinful" issue of premarital sex yielded similar results. Again, Europe revealed itself as the most accepting continent: in the Czech Republic, 67% of residents believe pre-married nookie is morally acceptable, the most of any country.
Dirty girls, stay clear of Indonesia and Jordan, where 97% and 95%, respectively, think premarital sex is morally unacceptable. (Most of us take our sex lives for granted—imagine how utterly orgasmless life could be!)
Speaking of which, the U.S. is nearly evenly divided on this topic. Most (36%) agree that hanky-panky isn't a moral issue for non-marrieds while another 30% feel it's outright unacceptable; 29% consider it morally alright.
Homosexuality
To be clear, sexual orientation is totally different from sexual choice. (But we digress.)
On this topic, Europe again proved itself to be a rockin' paragon of acceptance. Spain in particular owned the charts with a 55% acceptance rate. Wooohooo! Better yet, 38% don't think it's a moral issue and a mere 6% believe it's flat-out unacceptable. Sadly, Ghana takes the hate-cake on this one—a whopping 98% in the country deem homosexuality morally unacceptable.
And while it's scary to know that these feelings exist in 2014, more frightening still is that the U.S.—which, last time I checked, touts itself as the land of the brave and free—isn't too high on the proverbial progression ladder. A full 37% of U.S. participants think gayness is morally unacceptable, while 35% believe, meh, it's not a moral issue. Only 23% stood up and proclaimed homosexuality as morally A-OK.
For the most part, Europe tends to be the most liberal in terms of sexual freedom so let's all party there and let the remaining ignorance-mongering countries drink their own Haterade!
Most can probably agree it feels right (with the exception of freaky 'ol France) to look down on extramarital sex—um, raise your hand if you want your boo to cheat on you—but it's good to remember that the times are a'changing when it comes to both homosexuality and premarital sex. (Even in the days of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (i.e. 1988), approval ratings surrounding homosexuality, for instance, were around 11%.)
Hey! Looks like we're crawling in the right direction!
Image: Let's party in Spain. Courtesy of Hill Street Studios/ThinkStock
