A new study reveals that people who go to church are more likely to have a very satisfying sex life. Researchers in the United Kingdom found that strongly religious individuals are typically more content with their bedroom activities than those who are not religious or engage in casual sex.

A team from the University of Exeter adds that there is some truth in the saying “quality over quantity.” While religious people in the study typically had less sex than others, the sex they had left them more fulfilled than those engaging in casual encounters with multiple people.

According to the third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles results, men and women with a higher approval of casual sex or sex without love reported having less sexual satisfaction.

In a university release, Dr. Nitzan Peri-Rotem said, “The relationship between sex frequency and sexual satisfaction is neither simple nor straightforward; across all relationship types, too little or too much sex is associated with lower sexual satisfaction, suggesting that an optimum exists in terms of frequency related to higher satisfaction levels.”

Dr. Vegard Skirkbekk from the Norwegian Institute for Public Health and Columbia University said, “As religious individuals are less likely to engage in casual sex and are more likely to limit sexual activity to a relationship based on love, this can lead to lower expectations of sexual activity outside a formal union, as well as increased satisfaction from sex life in general.”

He continued, “However, it is possible that religious sentiments about the sanctity of marital sex, as well as disapproval of sex outside marriage, matter more for women’s than for men’s sexual satisfaction.”

While the survey found that religious married women reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction than their single peers, married men did not share that same satisfaction. Single religious men said they had a very satisfying love life. Still, the relationship disappeared after researchers factored in their attitudes about casual sex and sex without love or when the team only examined sexually active respondents.

Overall, 11 percent of men and 16 percent of women said their religious beliefs were fundamental. More than two in three people told researchers they rarely or never attend religious services. Half of the poll were married, and another 17 percent lived with a romantic partner. One in five respondents did not have a significant other.

Results also show that men were more likely to say they had sex multiple times over the past month — on average, 4.4 times compared to 4.0 for women. Men were also nearly twice as likely to say they’ve had over 10 sex partners in their lifetime.

The study authors also discovered a link between educational achievement and how much sex people have. According to the survey, highly educated individuals had sex less frequently than others. They also reported having more dissatisfaction with their sex life than those with less academic success.

“Our research suggests that changes in sexual behavior need to be understood in a context of changes in religious norms and beliefs and other societal level trends. The postponement of union formation is related to less frequent sex while also increasing the exposure to casual sex among those with a weaker religious orientation,” Dr. Peri-Rotem explains.