Differences In Sociosexuality Research Articles

If you leave, don't leave now: The role of gender, sociosexuality, and fear of being single on desire to engage in breakup sex

Experiencing a romantic breakup is often a complicated and emotional experience, and in many cases, this emotional ambivalence leads to people having “breakup sex” with their ex-partners. To better understand this complicated relationship stage, we sampled 987 single adults to understand how individual differences in sociosexuality and fear of being single predict one's desire to have breakup sex and previous breakup sex experience. We observed that both men and women who reported more unrestricted sociosexual orientations reported greater desire for breakup sex. However, women—but not men—who reported greater fear of being single reported a greater desire for breakup sex. Lastly, those who reported a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation were more likely to have had breakup sex in the past. Results suggest that both men's and women's desire for casual sex impacts engagement in breakup sex and that women's desire is also motivated by their fear of being single.

Relationship Between Sociosexuality and Condom Use Frequency Among Young French College Students.

Sociosexuality, conceptualized as individual differences in attitudes, behaviors, and desires for casual sex, is reflected in "hookup culture" where risky sexual behaviors should not be overlooked. The main objectives of this study were (a) to provide a first French adaptation of the SOI-R and to evaluate its psychometric properties, and (b) to examine the relationship between sociosexuality and condom use among young college students (N = 1037, mean age = 18.7 years, SD = 1 year). A path model hypothesizing links between dispositional optimism, boredom proneness, sexual orientation, age, gender (as correlated exogenous/independent variables), sociosexuality (as mediation variable), and condom use (as output variable), was specified and tested. Findings showed gender and sexual orientation differences in sociosexuality. As expected, males as well as non-heterosexual individuals endorsed more sociosexuality than the others. Optimism, but not boredom, predicted a higher level of sociosexuality. Sociosexuality positively predicted safer sex. Sociosexual orientation was not associated with condomless sex. It would seem that sexual freedom does not necessarily mean irresponsible sexual adventures for the young college students in our study.

Contrapposto posture captures visual attention: An online gaze tracking experiment

ABSTRACT Goddesses of love and beauty are frequently depicted in artwork in a contrapposto posture with one leg relaxing while the other bears the weight. Previous research has indicated that compared to an upright standing pose, a contrapposto pose is considered more attractive with its curviness capturing greater visual attention. Yet, whether a body posed in contrapposto is generally more visually attention-grabbing than an upright body remains unknown. We sought to address this gap and also examined if individual differences in sociosexuality – individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations – influence attentional allocation. Online gaze-tracking was employed to monitor subjects (n = 71) during image presentation in a preferential looking design (contrapposto verse standing). Participants had a greater proportion of their gaze directed towards female bodies depicted in contrapposto pose compared to a standing posture over an extended period of time but not in the first gaze shift. Moreover, sociosexuality correlated positively with the proportion of gazes towards contrapposto stimuli but fell short of statistical significance. The results of the current study indicate that top-down factors play a role in how people allocate more attention to contrapposto poses.

Sociosexuality, testosterone, and life history status: prospective associations and longitudinal changes among men in Cebu, Philippines

Abstract Sociosexuality is defined as an individual's interest in uncommitted sexual activity and can be measured in terms of both psychological orientations and behavioral expression. In socio-ecological contexts in which adults monogamously partner and cooperate to raise children, individuals with unrestricted sociosexuality are likely to prioritize mating/competition over committed partnering and parenting. Given the importance of mother-father cooperation in the evolutionary past, humans may have the capacity to facultatively and opportunistically downregulate sociosexuality to focus on priorities related to invested partnering and parenting. To date, no prior studies have used longitudinal data to track within-individuals changes in sociosexuality as it relates to such life history transitions. Given the lack of prior longitudinal research in this area, it is likewise unknown what physiological mechanisms might mediate within-individual changes in sociosexuality through time but testosterone is a plausible candidate. To explore these questions, we drew on a large, long-running study of Filipino men (n = 288), who were single non-fathers at 25.9 years of age and were followed up 4–5 years later. We found that men with more unrestricted sociosexuality at baseline were more likely to experience relationship dissolution by follow-up, consistent with past work. Compared to men who remained single non-fathers at follow-up, men who became married residential fathers showed shifts towards more restricted global sociosexuality as well as sociosexual behavior. Relative to their own baseline values, married residential fathers also had more restricted sociosexuality in all domains at follow-up. They were the only group for whom this was found. We found theoretically-consistent but modest support for positive correlations between men's testosterone and their sociosexuality, but no evidence that the two change in tandem together through time. Our results suggest that some amount of between-individual differences in sociosexuality are not stable and can facultatively shift alongside other aspects of male reproductive effort.

Individual differences in sociosexuality predict picture-based mobile dating app use

This study investigates individual differences, sex differences and predictors of current and prior use of Picture-Based Mobile Dating Apps (PBMDA), including level and type of PBMDA activity, and reasons for PBMDA use. Six hundred and forty-one Norwegian university students aged between 19 and 29 years completed a questionnaire in lecture breaks. Nearly half of the participants reported former or current PBMDA use. One in five was current users. We found that PBMDA-users tend to report being less restricted in their sociosexuality (as measured with the SOI-R) than participants who have never used PBMDAs. This effect was equally strong for men and women. Sociosexuality essentially accounted for the effects of other variables such as seeking a casual sex partner, being comfortable picking up strangers, and self-reported short-term mate value. As predicted, women and men's reasons for using PBMDAs differed. Relative to women, men emphasized desire for sex as a reason for using PBMDAs. When controlling for sex, age and SOI Desire there was no evidence that length of use increased lifetime casual sex partners. We conclude that the new technology provided by PBMDAs merely represents a new arena for short-term sexual behavior, and not necessarily a facilitator of new sexual behaviors.

Indywidualne różnice w socjoseksualności: dowody na trafność konwergencyjną i dyskryminacyjną

Individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations were investigated in 6 studies. In Study I, a 5-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOl) was developed. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provided convergent validity evidence for the SOI, revealing that persons who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation tend to (a) engage in sex at an earlier point in their relationships, (b) engage in sex with more than 1 partner at a time, and (c) be involved in relationships characterized by less investment, commitment, love, and dependency. Study 5 provided discriminant validity for the SOI, revealing that it does not covary appreciably with a good marker of sex drive. Study 6 demonstrated that the SOI correlates negligibly with measures of sexual satisfaction, anxiety, and guilt. The possible stability of, origins of, and motivational bases underlying individual differences in sociosexuality are discussed.

Sociosexuality in Mainland China

The construct of sociosexuality or sociosexual orientation describes the extent to which people will have casual, uncommitted sexual relationships. The Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) has been used to measure sociosexuality in many countries, but not in China. The aims of this study were to explore sociosexuality in a cross-section of the Chinese adult population, to quantify sex differences in sociosexuality, and to examine the sociodemographic correlates and the impact of the high sex ratio. The study consisted of a cross-sectional survey using a self-completion questionnaire. It was administered to adults of reproductive age in three provinces: Zhejiang, Guizhou, and Yunnan. While questionnaires were received from 7,424 participants, total SOI scores could be computed only for the 4,645 (63 %) who completed all seven items of the SOI. The mean score for men and women combined was 21.0, very low compared with most other countries, indicating restricted sociosexuality. The men (n = 2,048) had a mean of 27, showing more restricted sociosexuality than in all other countries where the SOI has been used. Wealth was the strongest independent correlate of high (unrestricted) sociosexuality in men and women. The effect size for the difference between the sexes was moderate (Cohen's d = .64), and comparable to more developed countries, perhaps reflecting relative gender equality in contemporary China. Despite the very high sex ratio, which is theorized to lead to restricted sexuality, its influence was difficult to determine, since differences in sociosexuality between high and low sex ratio areas within this population were inconsistent.

Sex differences and lifestyle-dependent shifts in the attunement of self-esteem to self-perceived mate value: Hints to an adaptive mechanism?

It has been suggested that self-esteem is reactive to signs of social rejection, and that this “sociometer” mechanism becomes attuned to those personal attributes that affect social acceptance by significant others. Based on evolutionary models of human mating, we predicted that self-esteem should be more attuned to self-perceived mate value in men (when compared to women) who pursue short-term mating tactics, especially if they are unsuccessful therein. In a web-based study ( N = 2670), we found that mate value self-perceptions had a stronger effect on self-esteem on those who had less short-term mating success in the past. However, being in a committed relationship or parenthood reduced the impact of mate value self-perceptions. As expected, these effects were specific to men. These results are suggestive of a psychological mechanism based on adaptive sociometer attunements that could help men to choose their optimal mating tactic and might thus partly explain intrasexual differences in sociosexuality.

Sex Differences in Sex Drive, Sociosexuality, and Height across 53 Nations: Testing Evolutionary and Social Structural Theories

By analyzing cross-cultural patterns in five parameters--sex differences, male and female trait means, male and female trait standard deviations--researchers can better test evolutionary and social structural models of sex differences. Five models of biological and social structural influence are presented that illustrate this proposal. Using data from 53 nations and from over 200,000 participants surveyed in a recent BBC Internet survey, I examined cross-cultural patterns in these five parameters for two sexual traits--sex drive and sociosexuality--and for height, a physical trait with a biologically based sex difference. Sex drive, sociosexuality, and height all showed consistent sex differences across nations (mean ds = .62, .74, and 1.63). Women were consistently more variable than men in sex drive (mean female to male variance ratio = 1.64). Gender equality and economic development tended to predict, across nations, sex differences in sociosexuality, but not sex differences in sex drive or height. Parameters for sociosexuality tended to vary across nations more than parameters for sex drive and height did. The results for sociosexuality were most consistent with a hybrid model--that both biological and social structural influences contribute to sex differences, whereas the results for sex drive and height were most consistent with a biological model--that evolved biological factors are the primary cause of sex differences. The model testing proposed here encourages evolutionary and social structural theorists to make more precise and nuanced predictions about the patterning of sex differences across cultures.

Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors: Why two factors are better than one

Researchers have recently questioned the unidimensionality of the sociosexual orientation inventory [SOI; Simpson, J. A., & Gangestad, S. W. (1991). Individual differences in sociosexuality: evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 870–883], which measures willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relationships. Previous research, however, has not empirically examined this issue. Thus, 2787 undergraduates completed measures of the SOI, narcissism, and hostility. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a dual-factor model of the SOI, which accounted for both behavioral (Items 1–3) and attitudinal (Items 2, 4–7) components, fit the data significantly better than a single-factor model. Although gender did not moderate the factor loadings, the sociosexual attitude-behavior correlation was stronger for women than for men. Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors were differentially related to narcissism and hostility. Researchers should consider scoring the SOI as separate attitudinal and behavioral components.

Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating

The Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI; Simpson & Gangestad 1991) is a self-report measure of individual differences in human mating strategies. Low SOI scores signify that a person is sociosexually restricted, or follows a more monogamous mating strategy. High SOI scores indicate that an individual is unrestricted, or has a more promiscuous mating strategy. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP), the SOI was translated from English into 25 additional languages and administered to a total sample of 14,059 people across 48 nations. Responses to the SOI were used to address four main issues. First, the psychometric properties of the SOI were examined in cross-cultural perspective. The SOI possessed adequate reliability and validity both within and across a diverse range of modem cultures. Second, theories concerning the systematic distribution of sociosexuality across cultures were evaluated. Both operational sex ratios and reproductively demanding environments related in evolutionary-predicted ways to national levels of sociosexuality. Third, sex differences in sociosexuality were generally large and demonstrated cross-cultural universality across the 48 nations of the ISDP, confirming several evolutionary theories of human mating. Fourth, sex differences in sociosexuality were significantly larger when reproductive environments were demanding but were reduced to more moderate levels in cultures with more political and economic gender equality. Implications for evolutionary and social role theories of human sexuality are discussed.

Fitting data to theory: The contribution of a comparative perspective

In this commentary, I consider Schmitt's cross-cultural investigation of sociosexuality from a comparative perspective. I argue that such a perspective lends support to an evolutionary explanation of a number of Schmitt's findings, including universal sex differences in sociosexuality and the sensitivity of mating behavior to contextual variables such as sex ratio.

Universal sex differences across patriarchal cultures ≠ evolved psychological dispositions

Schmitt's findings provide little evidence that sex differences in sociosexuality are explained by evolved dispositions. These sex differences are better explained by an evolutionary account that treats the psychological attributes of women and men as emergent, given the biological attributes of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social structural aspects of societies.

Measuring sociosexuality across people and nations: Revisiting the strengths and weaknesses of cross-cultural sex research

My response to the commentaries highlights three main points. First, the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) has demonstrated adequate reliability and validity across dozens of studies, and it deserves its reputation as a useful measure of basic human mating strategies. Second, the sampling limitations of the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP) do not negate the conclusion that sex differences in sociosexuality are likely universal across cultures. Third, the ISDP results support several theories of human sexuality, although some are based on faulty assumptions that render them less viable than others.

Do individual differences in sociosexuality represent genetic or environmentally contingent strategies? Evidence from the Australian twin registry.

Although men are substantially more interested than women in casual sex, there is ample variation in this trait (sociosexuality) within both sexes. One theory hypothesizes that within-sex sociosexual variation results from genetic variation maintained by frequency-dependent selection. If so, sociosexuality should be substantially heritable. A competing theory is that children acquire their mating strategy after observing their parents' relationship. By this theory, sociosexuality should reveal a strong shared environmental component. The authors studied genetic and environmental influences on sociosexuality using a large, representative volunteer twin sample. Parental marital instability was modestly associated with sociosexuality, but this could have been due to either genetic or environmental factors. Consistent with genetic theory, familial resemblance appeared primarily due to additive genetic rather than shared environmental factors.

Do individual differences in sociosexuality represent genetic or environmentally contingent strategies? Evidence from the Australian twin registry.

Although men are substantially more interested than women in casual sex, there is ample variation in this trait (sociosexuality) within both sexes. One theory hypothesizes that within-sex sociosexual variation results from genetic variation maintained by frequency-dependent selection. If so, sociosexuality should be substantially heritable. A competing theory is that children acquire their mating strategy after observing their parents' relationship. By this theory, sociosexuality should reveal a strong shared environmental component. The authors studied genetic and environmental influences on sociosexuality using a large, representative volunteer twin sample. Parental marital instability was modestly associated with sociosexuality, but this could have been due to either genetic or environmental factors. Consistent with genetic theory, familial resemblance appeared primarily due to additive genetic rather than shared environmental factors.

Individual differences in sociosexuality: Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity.

Individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations were investigated in 6 studies. In Study 1, a 5-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) was developed. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provided convergent validity evidence for the SOI, revealing that persons who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation tend to (a) engage in sex at an earlier point in their relationships, (b) engage in sex with more than 1 partner at a time, and (c) be involved in relationships characterized by less investment, commitment, love, and dependency. Study 5 provided discriminant validity for the SOI, revealing that it does not covary appreciably with a good marker of sex drive. Study 6 demonstrated that the SOI correlates negligibly with measures of sexual satisfaction, anxiety, and guilt. The possible stability of, origins of, and motivational bases underlying individual differences in sociosexuality are discussed.

Individual differences in sociosexuality: Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity.

Individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations were investigated in 6 studies. In Study 1, a 5-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) was developed. Studies 2, 3, and 4 provided convergent validity evidence for the SOI, revealing that persons who have an unrestricted sociosexual orientation tend to (a) engage in sex at an earlier point in their relationships, (b) engage in sex with more than 1 partner at a time, and (c) be involved in relationships characterized by less investment, commitment, love, and dependency. Study 5 provided discriminant validity for the SOI, revealing that it does not covary appreciably with a good marker of sex drive. Study 6 demonstrated that the SOI correlates negligibly with measures of sexual satisfaction, anxiety, and guilt. The possible stability of, origins of, and motivational bases underlying individual differences in sociosexuality are discussed.