Was it Good for You? Gender Differences in Motives and Emotional Outcomes Following Casual Sex

Billie E. McKeen,Ryan C. Anderson,David A. Mitchell

doi:10.1007/s12119-022-09946-w

Abstract

Casual sex, also referred to as a hookup, has been associated with a range of negative emotional outcomes for women, including regret, anxiety, depression and social stigma. However, it has been argued that it is the nature of the sexual motivation, not gender that influences the emotional outcome. This study was designed to ascertain what motivates people to have casual sex, what emotional outcomes follow casual sex and whether there are gender differences among these variables. Seven hundred and one participants (47% men and 52.8% women) completed a 44-item online survey. Gender differences were found for both sexual motivations and emotional outcomes of casual sex, with women generally having more negative emotional outcomes than men. Additionally, a principal components analysis uncovered four reliable principal motivations underlying engagement in casual sex, and three principal emotional outcomes of casual sex. Predictors of negative emotional outcomes included being motivated to regulate negative emotions and to achieve positive emotions. No predictors (apart from being a man) were found for a positive emotional outcome. While the stigma surrounding female sexual agency is diminishing, results generally support the presence of a sexual double-standard which encourages male promiscuity but dissuades female sexual autonomy.

Highlights

Gender differences in attitudes toward casual sex have been widely studied
As age has been previously shown to influence attitudes surrounding casual sex (Le Gall et al, 2002), men and women were initially compared on this dimension
To test the hypothesis that there would be gender differences in sexual motivations a one-way MANCOVA was performed with gender as the independent variable and each of the sexual motivation items as dependent variables

Summary

Introduction

Gender differences in attitudes toward casual sex have been widely studied. It has been reported that between 44 and 75% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 have experienced at least one casual sexual encounter within their lives (Flack1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)et al, 2016; Lyons et al, 2014; Maticka-Tyndale et al, 2003). Casual sex is a term that is used to describe a range of sexual behaviours, from a ‘once off’ encounter to frequent encounters of sexual intercourse in the absence of a committed relationship. Throughout this paper, the term ‘sex’ is used to refer to intimate acts from kissing to coital intercourse and ‘gender’ is used to refer to male and female identities, either biological or social. The term ‘hookup’ is used to refer to sexual activity, from a kiss to coital intercourse, outside of a committed relationship. Sexual expression is both rich and varied, and engagement in casual sex is by no means limited to the cisgender community. Previous research has examined variation in attitudes toward casual sex based on sexual orientation (Bothe et al, 2018; Fernandez del Rio, 2019) but has largely focused on the cisgender subset of humanity

Methods

Results

Conclusion