Dating game
Can Sex Education Delay Early Sexual Debut?
Sumru Erkut et al.
Journal of Early Adolescence, May 2013, Pages 482-497
Abstract:
In this study, we examine whether a nine-lesson sex education intervention, "Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works," implemented in sixth grade, can reduce the number of adolescents who might otherwise become "early starters" of sexual activity (defined as heterosexual intercourse) by seventh grade. Participants were 548 boys and 675 girls who completed surveys in both sixth grade (baseline) and seventh grade (follow-up). The sample was 35% Latino, 32% Black, 24% White, 3% Asian, and 6% biracial. Students randomly assigned to the control condition were 30% more likely to initiate sex by follow-up when controlling for having had sex by sixth grade, demographic variables, and a tendency to give socially desirable responses. This finding is noteworthy because previous research has identified early starters to be prone to poor outcomes in sexual health, family formation, economic security, and incarceration and few middle school interventions have shown an effect on behavioral outcomes.
----------------------
Suchi Pradyumn Joshi, Jochen Peter & Patti Valkenburg
Journal of Sex Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This quantitative content analysis investigated the hookup culture in U.S. and Dutch teen girl magazines. Using Hofstede's cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, the hookup culture (i.e., the relational context of sex, emotional context of sex, specific sexual activities, and contraceptives) was examined in 2,496 stories from all 2006 through 2008 issues of the three most popular U.S. (i.e., Seventeen, CosmoGirl! U.S. edition, and Teen) and Dutch teen girl magazines (i.e., Fancy, CosmoGirl! Netherlands edition, and Girlz!). Regarding the relational context of sex, stories about casual sex occurred more often in U.S. magazines, and Dutch magazines focused more on committed sex. Dutch magazines also emphasized sex within the emotional context of love more often than did U.S. magazines. In terms of sexual activities, coital sex was mentioned more often in U.S. coverage, while petting was mentioned more frequently in Dutch coverage. Condoms were covered more positively in U.S. magazines than in Dutch magazines. Overall, the hookup culture seems to be more visible in U.S. magazines for the occurrence of casual sex and lack of love stories, whereas it does not emerge in Dutch magazines due to the presence of committed sex and love-related articles.
----------------------
Tim Wadsworth
Social Indicators Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
A growing literature suggests that income, marriage, friendship, sex, and a variety of other factors influence self-reported happiness. Why these characteristics matter has been less examined. Scholars have recently demonstrated that part of the effect of income is relative. More income makes people happier, in part, because it sets them above their peers. Until now, the role of relative comparison in the study of happiness has been limited to income. The current work extends this focus to another activity - sex. Using GSS data, I examine how respondents' frequency of sex, as well as the average sexual frequency of their cohort, influences their happiness. The findings suggest that happiness is positively correlated with their own sexual frequency, but inversely correlated with the sexual frequency of others.
----------------------
Are Narcissists Sexy? Zeroing in on the Effect of Narcissism on Short-Term Mate Appeal
Michael Dufner et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research was aimed to provide a comprehensive test of the classic notion that narcissistic individuals are appealing as short-term romantic or sexual partners. In three studies, we tested the hypotheses that narcissism exerts a positive effect on an individual's mate appeal and that this effect is mediated by high physical attractiveness and high social boldness. We implemented a multimethod approach and used ratings of opposite sex persons (Study 1), ratings of friends (Study 2), and records of courtship outcomes in naturalistic interactions (Study 3) as indicators of mate appeal. In all cases, narcissism had a positive effect on mate appeal, which was mainly due to the agentic self-enhancement aspects of narcissism (rather than narcissists' lacking communion). As predicted, physical attractiveness and social boldness mediated the positive effect of narcissism on mate appeal. Findings further indicated that narcissism was more strongly linked to mate appeal than to friend appeal.
----------------------
Marie Heffernan & Chris Fraley
Journal of Research in Personality, August 2013, Pages 364-368
Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to examine whether early caregiving experiences are associated with adult mate preferences. Participants completed an online survey in which they rated the attractiveness of target faces. Participants born to older parents were more attracted to older faces compared with participants born to younger parents. The results are consistent with the idea that early experiences may play a role in shaping later mate preferences.
----------------------
Compensated for Life: Sex Work and Disease Risk
Raj Arunachalam & Manisha Shah
Journal of Human Resources, Spring 2013, Pages 345-369
Abstract:
Sex workers draw a premium for engaging in unprotected sex. We theoretically motivate a test of whether this premium represents a compensating differential for disease, thereby mitigating sex workers' propensity to use condoms. Using transaction-level data and biological STI markers from sex workers in Ecuador, we exploit within-worker variation across local disease environments. We find that locations with low disease prevalence exhibit a very low, insignificant premium for unprotected sex. A one percentage point increase in the local disease rate increases the premium for noncondom sex by 33 percent. Market forces may curb the self-limiting nature of STI epidemics.
----------------------
Compliments and Receptivity to a Courtship Request: A Field Experiment
Nicolas Guéguen, Jacques Fischer-Lokou & Lubomir Lamy
Psychological Reports, February 2013, Pages 239-242
Abstract:
160 young women were solicited in the street to have a drink with a young male confederate. In the ingratiation condition, the solicitor complimented the woman regarding her physical appearance before making the request, while in the no-compliment condition, the confederate asked his request directly. Results showed that complimenting was associated with greater compliance to the request.
----------------------
Networks as Covers: Evidence from an On-Line Social Network
Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Harvard Working Paper, March 2013
Abstract:
This paper proposes that networks give actors a cover by giving them the excuse of sociability to engage in normatively prohibited market behaviors. I apply this hypothesis to actors in long-term exclusive relationships who are surreptitiously seeking new relationships without jeopardizing their current ones. I hypothesize that these actors will be drawn to social environments where others socialize with their friends, and that they will establish numerous relationships in these environments to cover up their real intent. I find significant support for these predictions using data from a large on-line social network.
----------------------
Dads or cads? Women's strategic decisions in the mating game
Susan Aitken, Minna Lyons & Peter Jonason
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We report the findings of two studies (N = 142; N = 28) investigating women's preference for men in short- and long-term mating scenarios and perceptions of honesty of dating adverts written by men high or low in Machiavellianism. Overall, men low on Machiavellianism (viz., dads), were preferred as long-term mates; and men high on Machiavellianism (viz., cads) as short-term mates. Fertile women preferred cads for a short-term relationship and dads as a long-term partner. Higher ratings were given to all adverts when females were fertile, suggesting generally higher levels of desire for a partner when the possibility of conception is highest. In contrast to previous work suggesting traits like Machiavellianism may facilitate a deceptive or exploitative mating strategy in men, the present results suggest (1) women are attuned to differences in men's personality as a function of fertility and (2) affirms that women prefer cads for short-term mating and dads for long-term mating.
----------------------
Penis size interacts with body shape and height to influence male attractiveness
Brian Mautz et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Compelling evidence from many animal taxa indicates that male genitalia are often under postcopulatory sexual selection for characteristics that increase a male's relative fertilization success. There could, however, also be direct precopulatory female mate choice based on male genital traits. Before clothing, the nonretractable human penis would have been conspicuous to potential mates. This observation has generated suggestions that human penis size partly evolved because of female choice. Here we show, based upon female assessment of digitally projected life-size, computer-generated images, that penis size interacts with body shape and height to determine male sexual attractiveness. Positive linear selection was detected for penis size, but the marginal increase in attractiveness eventually declined with greater penis size (i.e., quadratic selection). Penis size had a stronger effect on attractiveness in taller men than in shorter men. There was a similar increase in the positive effect of penis size on attractiveness with a more masculine body shape (i.e., greater shoulder-to-hip ratio). Surprisingly, larger penis size and greater height had almost equivalent positive effects on male attractiveness. Our results support the hypothesis that female mate choice could have driven the evolution of larger penises in humans. More broadly, our results show that precopulatory sexual selection can play a role in the evolution of genital traits.
----------------------
Terri Fisher
Sex Roles, April 2013, Pages 401-414
Abstract:
Previous studies have indicated that the research context has an influence on whether gender differences are found in sexual behavior, likely due to adherence to different gender norms for men and women. The present study utilized bogus pipeline methodology to help determine if the purported use of a lie detector would influence gender differences in reports of other types of behaviors considered more suitable for one gender or the other. Participants consisted of General Psychology students attending a regional campus of a major Midwestern university in the United States. Approximately half of 293 participants completed a questionnaire while connected to non-functioning lie detection equipment and the other half completed the questionnaire after the equipment had been disconnected. There were interactions between gender of participant and testing condition for sexual behavior but not for other types of common behaviors considered more appropriate for one gender or the other. This suggests that there is something specific to sexual behavior with regard to a differential willingness between men and women to report behavior unless there is pressure to be honest. Hypergender ideology was related to reports of sexual behavior (but not nonsexual behavior) only for men in the bogus pipeline condition, lending further support to the idea that gender role expectations influence reports of sexual behavior more than reports of other types of behavior.
----------------------
Barnaby Dixson & Robert Brooks
Evolution and Human Behavior, May 2013, Pages 236-241
Abstract:
Facial hair strongly influences people's judgments of men's socio-sexual attributes. However, the nature of these judgments is often contradictory. The levels of intermediate facial hair growth presented to raters and the stage of female raters' menstrual cycles might have influenced past findings. We quantified men's and women's judgments of attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities for photographs of men who were clean-shaven, lightly or heavily stubbled and fully bearded. We also tested the effect of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive use on women's ratings. Women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive. In contrast, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive. Men and women rated full beards highest for parenting ability and healthiness. Masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased, and this effect was more pronounced in women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, although attractiveness ratings did not differ according to fertility. Our findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring.
----------------------
Hooking Up and Penetrative Hookups: Correlates that Differentiate College Men
Spencer Olmstead, Kay Pasley & Frank Fincham
Archives of Sexual Behavior, May 2013, Pages 573-583
Abstract:
One prominent pathway to sexual intimacy among college student populations is hooking up. Past research has largely compared men and women, with limited attention given to how men differ regarding involvement in hookups and their hookup behaviors. This study used a sample of 412 college men to examine the individual, social, relational, and family background correlates of (1) hooking up during a semester and (2) penetrative hookup encounters (e.g., oral sex, intercourse). Overall, 69% reported a hookup during the semester, with 73% of those who hooked up reporting penetrative hookups. Using logistic regression, men were more likely to hookup if they had an extraverted personality, were consuming more alcohol, and had previous hookup experience. They were less likely to hookup if they were more thoughtful about their relationship decisions and if they were in a stable, committed romantic relationship. Men also were more likely to engage in penetrative hookups only if they held more permissive attitudes towards sex and if they had previous penetrative hookup experience. Implications for intervention and research are discussed.
----------------------
Gilda Giebel et al.
Evolutionary Psychology, March 2013, Pages 248-262
Abstract:
Many studies have reported that during high fertility points in the menstrual cycle, women demonstrate increased preference for men with masculinized faces and bodies. In this study, we analyzed whether appetitive aggression in men serves as an additional signal for a favored partner choice. Appetitive aggression describes the intrinsic motivation to act violently even when not being threatened. This study evaluated the responses of 1212 women to one of four descriptions regarding a soldier´s experience after returning from war. The four vignettes included trauma related symptoms with high or low appetitive aggression, or no trauma related symptoms with high or low appetitive aggression. Participants rated their desirability for the soldier in regards to potential long-term and short-term relationships. Results indicate that women preferred a soldier high in appetitive aggression as a short-term mate but not as a long-term relationship. This preference for the "warrior" was higher for women in their fertile window of the menstrual cycle. We conclude that women in their fertile window prefer men exhibiting higher appetitive aggression as a short-term partner, revealing appetitive aggression in men may serve as a signal for a higher genetic fitness.
----------------------
Potentials-Attract or Likes-Attract in Human Mate Choice in China
Qiao-Qiao He et al.
PLoS ONE, April 2013
Abstract:
To explain how individuals' self-perceived long-term mate value influences their mate preference and mate choice, two hypotheses have been presented, which are "potentials-attract" and "likes-attract", respectively. The potentials-attract means that people choose mates matched with their sex-specific traits indicating reproductive potentials; and the likes-attract means that people choose mates matched with their own conditions. However, the debate about these two hypotheses still remains unsolved. In this paper, we tested these two hypotheses using a human's actual mate choice data from a Chinese online dating system (called the Baihe website), where 27,183 users of Baihe website are included, in which there are 590 paired couples (1180 individuals) who met each other via the website. Our main results show that not only the relationship between individuals' own attributes and their self-stated mate preference but also that between individuals' own attributes and their actual mate choice are more consistent with the likes-attract hypothesis, i.e., people tend to choose mates who are similar to themselves in a variety of attributes.
----------------------
T.K. Saxton et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
An evolutionary approach to attractiveness judgments emphasises that many human trait preferences exist in order to assist adaptive mate choice. Here we test an adaptive development hypothesis, whereby voice pitch preferences indicating potential mate quality might arise or strengthen significantly during adolescence (when mate choice becomes adaptive). We used a longitudinal study of 250 adolescents to investigate changes in preference for voice pitch, a proposed marker of mate quality. We found significantly stronger preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices in the older age group compared with the younger age group (using different sets of age-matched stimuli), and marginally increased preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices comparing within-participant preferences for the same set of stimuli over the course of 1 year. We also found stability in individual differences in preferences across adolescence: controlling for age, the raters who had stronger preferences than their peers for lower-pitched voices when first tested, retained stronger preferences for lower-pitched voices relative to their peers about 1 year later. Adolescence provides a useful arena for evaluating adaptive hypotheses and testing the cues that might give rise to adaptive behaviour.