While I’ve never been carnally involved with a redhead, I carry memories of flame-haired beauties around with me.

Nicole Kidman’s defiant sexuality in “Dead Calm.” Alyson Hannigan’s filthy innocence in “American Pie.” Isla Fisher’s nymphomaniac minx in “Wedding Crashers.” Even Lindsay Lohan’s photo spread in New York magazine was alluring (sans freckles). And, well, if you know me at all, you know I hold an unabashed candle for early Belinda Carlisle. (Truly, somewhere in my heart I’m always dancing with her in the summer rain.)

I like to call the phenomenon, “The Goddess Venus Effect,” whereby a spiteful and recessive little gene responsible for fair skin and recurrent ear infections in roughly 1 percent to 2 percent of the population is also the cause of their glorious hair. And whether that hair has a burnt orange hue, bright copper color, or strawberry blonde burnish, the wearers seem to have fiery, frisky, risque personalities to match. Finally, a survey has arrived to prove the point.

Sam Yagan, co-founder of OkCupid.com, the largest free online dating site, said his company took advantage of its core 18-to-25-year-old demographic this summer to examine “the ins and outs of college students’ sexual experiences” (pun intended). The survey was 150 items long, and more than 10,000 college students across America completed it, yielding findings such as the fact that:

- Women are generally more adventurous than men.

- Vegans and vegetarians enjoy giving oral sex more than twice as much as carnivores.

- 2 in 5 students have had sex while someone else was in the room.

But the hair-color demographic was the most interesting to me, and to Yagan.

“I think we were able to show that ‘Blondes have more fun’ is probably not really true,” he said. "In fact, we found that redheads by and large are just much more likely to have done something adventurous.

“You name it, across the board,” Yagan said. “Sex toys, stripteases, threesomes — the redheads just totally outmatched, outshone and outstripped the blondes.”

And what about the guys? I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to acknowledge that Eric Stoltz is a good-looking man. But aside from Stoltz and Prince Harry what male celebs do redheaded guys have to admire?

Young Ron Howard? Ron Weasley? Those are the kind of guys who get mocked for their maroon mop, like Kyle Broflovski, famously persecuted in an episode of “South Park” along with other “Ginger kids.”

Where I grew up, we were particularly creative with the nicknames, calling them “Bluey” (out of a sense of irony), or “Ranga” (short for orangutan), or “Bloodnut” (don’t ask). It all seemed entirely arbitrary, discriminatory and wrong — Shaun White is damn cool! — something the study thankfully confirmed.

In almost all measures of sexuality, redheaded men were more adventurous than guys with blond, brown and black hair, if not quite as raunchy as their female counterparts.

Yagan believed he could explain this too, noting that some women actually opt to color their hair red — a selection factor nonexistent in men.

Whatever the gender, the message people should take away from these findings is clear.

“To parents,” said Yagan, “if your daughter dyes her hair red, that might be something to take note of. And men, if you’re out at a bar and have something in mind for the night, perhaps pass on the blonde at the bar, and make a beeline for the redhead in the corner.”

h1. In the red

A survey by online dating site OkCupid.com shows:

Redheads have more tattoos, including more in that lower-back, “tramp-stamp” region.

They have more piercings, including more in the navel, nipples and genitals.

They pass out more often from drinking, and smoke more pot.

More of them know where the clitoris is located, and how to find the G-spot.

They’ve taken more pregnancy tests, been tested more for STDs, had more STDs, and lied more about having STDs, to both friends and sex partners.

More of them think talking dirty is a turn-on, and they are also more willing to “help themselves out” if their partner is fumbling.

They moan louder.

There are more naked pictures of them online, and more sex videos in cyberspace, too.

They rate their sexual confidence and sexual performance higher.