Intimacy
Trends in Vaginal Intercourse Experience and Timing among Adolescent Men in the United States: A Descriptive Analysis by Race/Ethnicity
Giuseppina Valle Holway & Karin Brewster
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, April 2024
Abstract:
Recent reports of declining prevalence of vaginal intercourse (VI) experience among adolescent men are largely silent on differences by race and ethnicity. This visualization illustrates trends by race/ethnicity in VI experience, average age at first VI, and age-specific cumulative probabilities of VI experience for young men, using retrospective data from multiple rounds of the National Survey of Family Growth covering 2006 to 2019. The authors find that although VI engagement is declining universally, the decline is substantially more pronounced among Black men than among their White and Hispanic peers. Although young Black men continue to engage in VI at higher rates and earlier ages, recent trends are narrowing long-standing racial/ethnic differences.
Effects of Market Size and Competition in Two-Sided Markets: Evidence from Online Dating
Jessica Fong
Marketing Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents a field experiment designed to independently measure cross-side and same-side network effects. I conduct this experiment in collaboration with an online dating platform to examine how the number of platform users on the opposite side (“market size”) and number of platform users on the same side (“competition size”) impact search behavior. The experiment provides a user-level information treatment by indicating the lower bound on the number of men and women near the user’s location. I find that, on average, an increase in market size deters users from participating in the market. Conditional on participating, market and competition size influence matching decisions. Specifically, an increase in market size causes users to become more selective, whereas competition causes users to become less selective. I discuss potential underlying mechanisms that can explain these empirical findings.
Women's sensitivity to threat in online dating and the (in)effectiveness of standard safety warnings
Shelby Shuster et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, August 2024
Abstract:
Acts of sexual aggression are sometimes initiated through an online dating arrangement or encounter (e.g., through Tinder, Bumble). Certain personality and physical traits may be predictive of such sexual aggression propensity, and thus evident in online dating profiles (e.g., biographies and photographs). However, it is unclear whether (1) people are sensitive to such “red flags” and (2) whether safety recommendations employed by online dating platforms effectively enhance such sensitivity. For the first time, using an online dating simulation, we experimentally investigated the extent to which women's (n = 167) expressions of interest in men were sensitive to (i.e., influenced by) cues of threat in the men's online dating biographies and photographs, and whether the presence (vs absence) of safety recommendations enhanced this sensitivity. We find fewer expressions of interest for high (vs low) threat dating profiles, although the magnitude of this threat sensitivity/aversion effect varied across women and was not enhanced by safety recommendations. We identify some individual difference factors associated with this threat sensitivity/aversion, but our work underscores the importance of developing other interventions, technologies, or safeguards that screen for, or assist with, identifying such threats, making online dating interactions safer for all users.
Disparities in Mortality by Sexual Orientation in a Large, Prospective Cohort of Female Nurses
Sarah McKetta et al.
Journal of the American Medical Association, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective cohort study examined differences in time to mortality across sexual orientation, adjusting for birth cohort. Participants were female nurses born between 1945 and 1964, initially recruited in the US in 1989 for the Nurses’ Health Study II, and followed up through April 2022.
Results: Among 116 149 eligible participants, 90 833 (78%) had valid sexual orientation data. Of these 90 833 participants, 89 821 (98.9%) identified as heterosexual, 694 (0.8%) identified as lesbian, and 318 (0.4%) identified as bisexual. Of the 4227 deaths reported, the majority were among heterosexual participants (n = 4146; cumulative mortality of 4.6%), followed by lesbian participants (n = 49; cumulative mortality of 7.0%) and bisexual participants (n = 32; cumulative mortality of 10.1%). Compared with heterosexual participants, LGB participants had earlier mortality (adjusted acceleration factor, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.64-0.84]). These differences were greatest among bisexual participants (adjusted acceleration factor, 0.63 [95% CI, 0.51-0.78]) followed by lesbian participants (adjusted acceleration factor, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.68-0.95]).
Is there a kernel of truth to the stereotype that women who engage in casual sex have lower self-esteem?
Susan Sprecher & Julie Verette-Lindenbaum
Personality and Individual Differences, May 2024
Abstract:
Evidence of a stereotype that links casual sex with being stigmatized and having a lower self-esteem has been found in recent studies particularly for women. This study focused on whether there is a kernel of truth to the specific stereotype that casual sex is linked to lower self-esteem in women. More specifically, we addressed the question of whether, in recent decades, college women who had higher sociosexuality scores (i.e., approved of and engaged in casual sex) had a lower self-esteem than women who were more restricted in their sociosexuality. Secondary analysis of data (N = 8112) collected from 1990 to 2019 at a U.S. Midwestern University suggested no evidence that scores on sociosexuality were linked to global self-esteem for either women or men, and regardless of the decade of data collection. However, a fine-grained exploratory analysis that considered different components of sociosexuality (behaviors, attitudes, and desire/fantasy) and different types of self-esteem (global, relationship, and appearance) demonstrated some associations. For example, the behavioral component of sociosexuality was positively associated with appearance self-esteem particularly for men and the attitudinal component of sociosexuality was negatively associated with relationship self-esteem for women. Furthermore, desire/fantasy about an alternative partner was negatively associated with relationship self-esteem for both women and men (with the exception of the most recent cohort). Future research may consider that the effects of casual sex on self-views may depend on the motives for having casual sex.
Enhancing User Privacy Through Ephemeral Sharing Design: Experimental Evidence from Online Dating
Yumei He et al.
Information Systems Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Users on online dating platforms tend to encounter a cold-start problem, with limited user engagement in the initial stages of the matching process; this is partially due to privacy concerns. In this study, we propose ephemeral sharing as a privacy-enhancing design to strike a balance between users’ privacy concerns and the need for voluntary information disclosure. Ephemeral sharing refers to a digital design in which the information shared (e.g., a personal photo) becomes invisible and irretraceable to the receiver shortly after the receipt of such information. In partnership with an online dating platform, we report a large-scale randomized field experiment with more than 70,000 users to understand how ephemeral sharing influences users’ disclosure of personal photos, match outcome, and receiver engagement. The experiment features a treatment group in which subjects can upload an ephemeral photo along with their matching request and a control group in which subjects can instead upload a persistent photo. We find that users in the treatment group send more personal photos (and ones with human faces) compared with users in the control group. Additionally, the ephemeral sharing treatment leads to a higher number of matches and a higher level of receiver engagement. Further analyses suggest that the treatment effects are more salient for privacy-sensitive senders. Moreover, we find that the treatment effects on match outcome and receiver engagement can be explained by increases in the disclosure of personal photos. Last, through an online experiment, we show that ephemeral sharing increases disclosure intention by reducing privacy concerns related to data collection, dissemination, and identity abuse. Our study contributes to the literature and practice on privacy-enhancing designs for online matching platforms.
When What Is Beautiful Is Not Good: The Role of Trait Self-Control in Resisting Eye Candy
Michelle vanDellen et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
People are drawn to and like others who are physically attractive. In the present research, we investigated the influence of trait self-control on individuals’ interest in relationships with physically attractive others. We hypothesized that high (vs. low) self-control individuals would approach relationships by considering information beyond appearance about potential partners, including partners’ self-control. We additionally explored the influence of other traits (e.g., Big 5, self-esteem, and attachment styles) on relationship interest. Across studies, we consistently found that individuals with higher self-control avoided pursuing relationships with attractive individuals who display low self-control. In Study 3, we observed a similar pattern for three other traits: conscientiousness, extraversion, and positivity embracement. These results suggest perceivers’ self-control shapes relationship interest, particularly when attractive individuals possess less desirable qualities. The findings extend past research that attractiveness increases interest in others and highlights the potential for trait self-control to direct relationship interest during initial interactions.