The sexual double standard and gender differences in attitudes toward casual sex among U.S. university students

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUNDA significant portion of premarital sexual activity is casual rather than in relationships, and commentators disagree on whether this is what women prefer.OBJECTIVEWe examine gender differences in attitudes toward casual sex. We also assess whether there is a double standard whereby women are judged more harshly for casual sex.METHODSWe use a large online survey of U.S. university students to examine gender differences with regard to attitudes and reports of sexual behavior.RESULTSWhile distributions overlap, the average man looks more favorably on casual sex than the average woman. Both sexes show substantial openness to relationships. We find evidence of a double standard: men are more judgmental toward women than toward men who have casual sex. Men appear to over-report and/or women to under-report intercourse and fellatio, suggesting that men see these acts as enhancing and/or women see them as diminishing their status.CONCLUSIONSWomen face more negative judgment than men when they are known to engage in casual sex, and they also report less interest in casual sex than men. Our analysis does not permit us to assess whether the double standard we find evidence of explains why women have less interest in casual sex, but we hypothesize that this is the case.1. IntroductionIn the United States today, average age at first intercourse is 17, first marriages are typically in the mid-20s, and premarital sex is ubiquitous (Guttmacher Institute 2013). Numerous other affluent nations also have late marriage and substantial premarital sex (Schalet 2011; Darroch et al. 2001; Hubert et al. 2004). For U.S. cohorts born before World War II, much of premarital heterosexual activity was between partners engaged to be married, but later cohorts were more likely to have had sex in relationships that didn't lead to marriage (Klassen et al. 1989). More recently premarital sexual activity is often in contexts even more casual than a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship (Manning et al. 2006; Bogle 2008; Armstrong et al. 2012). It is likely that these changes, common to affluent Western nations, arose from structural and cultural changes that promoted secularization and individualism, and which manifest in casual sex among young adults, as well as the rise of childbearing within cohabitation (Surkyn and Lesthaeghe 2004). In the U.S., the rise of casual sex has been dubbed the culture.Commentators disagree on whether the casual sex entailed on hookups is good for women and whether it is what women want. Regarding the U.S. college scene, Bogle (2008) calls the disagreement over whether relationships or hookups are preferable a war of the sexes that women have lost. (For similar views see Glenn and Marquardt 2001; Regnerus and Uecker 2011; Regnerus 2012). These authors posit the conventional wisdom that men want casual sex more than women, while women are more desirous of relationships and limiting sex to relationships. Evolutionary psychologists argue that men's greater interest in casual sex is hard-wired (Buss 1989; Baumeister et al. 2001). Many social scientists, on the other hand, see such gender differences in preferences for casual sex as resulting from a socially enforced double standard: girls and women are judged harshly if they are seen as too sexual (Crawford and Popp 2003; Miller 2008; Armstrong et al. 2012), while boys and men more often receive accolades (Pascoe 2007). Other journalists and social scientists question the claim that women are more interested in relationships than men. They argue that many college women participate enthusiastically in the hookup culture, and that it is better for women's autonomy, education, and careers to avoid relationships till well into their 20s (Rosin 2012:17-46; Hamilton and Armstrong 2009).We use a large dataset on U.S. college students to examine whether there is evidence for a double standard and for gender differences in attitudes toward casual sex. …