Experts worldwide are constantly thinking of new ideas and policies to help boost the economy but seem to overlook the idea that personal pleasure affects it directly. A LELO 2023 Report suggests that more orgasms would make for a cost-effective way to *stimulate* the economy. This is not a joke.
Economic growth is measured by an increase in gross domestic product (GDP), which is defined as the combined value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. Still, many more forces contribute to this economic growth, and a report by sexual wellness bigwig LELO shines a light on a less explored force – pleasure, and its influence on personal productivity.
The global hangover from Covid 19 combined with ongoing global crises are keeping productivity at low levels across the world, but small changes can make enormous differences on a larger scale. If global productivity increases by 20%, imagine the chain effect on poverty and living standards.
Happiness can be achieved through behavioral changes as small as orgasms and bedroom intimacy. The best part? Changes such as these cost nothing, aside from maybe some creative thinking from governments, employers and their employees.
LELO is already doing its bit by offering its UK staff the opportunity to take up to four days a year as self-love days in addition to their allotted holiday, and is looking to inspire this policy worldwide.
*Percentage of those who feel more relaxed and less stressed after orgasm.
Self-love days follow the format of duvet days, but with a twist – employees are encouraged to take the day to fulfill themselves sexually and enjoy as many orgasms as they want. Whether it’s alone or with a partner, LELO believes that offering employees the chance to take days off dedicated to sexual pleasure will improve happiness, reduce stress and ultimately improve the productivity of its workforce.
In fact, talking about pleasure and orgasms in general, Kate Moyle, LELO UK sex expert, says:
Approaching sex from a biopsychosocial understanding and looking at it from a mind-body approach we know that our sex lives can be influenced by, and influence what’s happening for us as individuals in our life contexts and relationships as it can shape how we see and feel about ourselves both as individuals and in terms of our relationships. These are all factors that can shape our experiences, perspectives, worries and self-beliefs, and so having improved sexual wellness not only plays a role directly but also how we think, feel and behave in other contexts.
The LELO Report 2023, which draws on existing academic research as well as a commissioned survey, found that happiness is a major driver of productivity, with 9 out of 10 people worldwide agreeing that the happier they are, the more productive they are at work. At the same time, 7 out of 10 would gladly utilise the self-love days to work on their productivity if offered the opportunity.
*Percentage of those who are more productive when they are having regular orgasms.
Rosanna Spero, author of The LELO Economy of Orgasms report said:
It is truly interesting researching what orgasms can do for a person, but it is even more astonishing to realise that this can increase happiness and productivity, and thus influence the global economy. It has been fascinating discovering what a difference increased happiness could have made over the 20 years of LELO’s existence. Global GDP stood at $101 trillion at the end of 2022 according to the World Bank. If it had risen by 20% year on year since 2003 when LELO launched and it stood at $39.16 trillion, it would have been $1,501 trillion by the end of 2022. An incredible nearly 15 times bigger. Not bad for an orgasm or two!
Luka Matutinovic, LELO CMO adds,
Ever since the first lockdown in 2020, the discourse on sexual wellness pleasure has been regularly featured in the mainstream media. Finally, it was proven that sexual satisfaction is an integral part of human wellbeing, physical and mental. We at LELO are happy to have been in the driving seat for the last 20 years in getting sexual wellness to the place it is now, and are now focusing on portraying that there is much more to it than just snagging an orgasm. Because of this, we thought it would be interesting to find out how this really impacts people’s day-to-day life and to explore what benefits could arise from the people having more opportunities to love themselves. The fact that something so simple like an orgasm could affect, and positively so, the economies worldwide was not that big of a surprise because we did similar research in the UK a couple of years back. But the figures surprised us as well, and we hope experts and people around the world will take notice of this and join LELO in implementing the self-love days.
Read the full LELO Report 2023.