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Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies

Previous work shows that males are more likely to pursue casual sex if given the opportunity, compared to females, on average. One component of this strategy is risk-taking, and males have been shown to take more risks than females in a variety of contexts. Here, we investigate the extent to which s...

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Autores principales: Pipitone, R. Nathan, Cruz, Lesley, Morales, Helen N., Aladro, Daniela, Savitsky, Serena R., Koroleva, Maria, Valdez, Francesca, Campbell, Erin, Miranda, Sam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8446665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34539507
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706149
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author Pipitone, R. Nathan
Cruz, Lesley
Morales, Helen N.
Aladro, Daniela
Savitsky, Serena R.
Koroleva, Maria
Valdez, Francesca
Campbell, Erin
Miranda, Sam
author_facet Pipitone, R. Nathan
Cruz, Lesley
Morales, Helen N.
Aladro, Daniela
Savitsky, Serena R.
Koroleva, Maria
Valdez, Francesca
Campbell, Erin
Miranda, Sam
author_sort Pipitone, R. Nathan
collection PubMed
description Previous work shows that males are more likely to pursue casual sex if given the opportunity, compared to females, on average. One component of this strategy is risk-taking, and males have been shown to take more risks than females in a variety of contexts. Here, we investigate the extent to which sex differences exist considering casual sexual encounters involving sexually transmitted infections (STIs) using a hypothetical sexual scenario which attempts to circumvent several factors that may contribute to a female’s hesitancy to engage in casual sex encounters. Two hundred and forty-six college students rated their willingness to engage in a satisfying casual sexual encounter with someone judged to be personable as a function of sex, varying STI contraction likelihoods, several STI types, and two levels of hypothetical partner attractiveness. We also assess how individual levels of sociosexuality (as measured by the SOI-R) impact findings. Our findings show that males report higher likelihoods of sexual engagement compared to females in general. This trend continued for lower likelihoods of STI contraction in all four STI types (Cold, Chlamydia, Herpes, HIV), with larger effects shown in the high attractiveness partner condition. For higher STI contraction likelihoods and more severe STI types, along with lower partner attractiveness levels, sex differences shrank. Factoring in participant SOI-R scores attenuated the effects somewhat, although it failed to alter findings substantially with predicted sex differences continuing to exist. These results offer further insight into evolved sex differences in human mating systems and provide an additional framework to test sexual risk-taking among males and females.
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spelling pubmed-84466652021-09-18 Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies Pipitone, R. Nathan Cruz, Lesley Morales, Helen N. Aladro, Daniela Savitsky, Serena R. Koroleva, Maria Valdez, Francesca Campbell, Erin Miranda, Sam Front Psychol Psychology Previous work shows that males are more likely to pursue casual sex if given the opportunity, compared to females, on average. One component of this strategy is risk-taking, and males have been shown to take more risks than females in a variety of contexts. Here, we investigate the extent to which sex differences exist considering casual sexual encounters involving sexually transmitted infections (STIs) using a hypothetical sexual scenario which attempts to circumvent several factors that may contribute to a female’s hesitancy to engage in casual sex encounters. Two hundred and forty-six college students rated their willingness to engage in a satisfying casual sexual encounter with someone judged to be personable as a function of sex, varying STI contraction likelihoods, several STI types, and two levels of hypothetical partner attractiveness. We also assess how individual levels of sociosexuality (as measured by the SOI-R) impact findings. Our findings show that males report higher likelihoods of sexual engagement compared to females in general. This trend continued for lower likelihoods of STI contraction in all four STI types (Cold, Chlamydia, Herpes, HIV), with larger effects shown in the high attractiveness partner condition. For higher STI contraction likelihoods and more severe STI types, along with lower partner attractiveness levels, sex differences shrank. Factoring in participant SOI-R scores attenuated the effects somewhat, although it failed to alter findings substantially with predicted sex differences continuing to exist. These results offer further insight into evolved sex differences in human mating systems and provide an additional framework to test sexual risk-taking among males and females. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8446665/ /pubmed/34539507 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706149 Text en Copyright © 2021 Pipitone, Cruz, Morales, Aladro, Savitsky, Koroleva, Valdez, Campbell and Miranda. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Pipitone, R. Nathan
Cruz, Lesley
Morales, Helen N.
Aladro, Daniela
Savitsky, Serena R.
Koroleva, Maria
Valdez, Francesca
Campbell, Erin
Miranda, Sam
Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title_full Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title_fullStr Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title_full_unstemmed Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title_short Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Casual Sex: Using STI Contraction Likelihoods to Assess Evolved Mating Strategies
title_sort sex differences in attitudes toward casual sex: using sti contraction likelihoods to assess evolved mating strategies
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8446665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34539507
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706149
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