Volume 30 - Article 46 | Pages 1327–1338  

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

By Paula England, Jonathan Bearak

Abstract

Background: A significant portion of premarital sexual activity is casual rather than in relationships, and commentators disagree on whether this is what women prefer.

Objective: We 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.

Methods: We use a large online survey of U.S. university students to examine gender differences with regard to attitudes and reports of sexual behavior.

Results: While 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.

Conclusions: Women 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.

Author’s Affiliation

• Paula England - New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates EMAIL
• Jonathan Bearak - New York University, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Reexamining trends in premarital sex in the United States
Volume 38 - Article 27

When one spouse has an affair, who is more likely to leave?
Volume 30 - Article 18

Premarital conceptions, postconception ("shotgun") marriages, and premarital first births: Education gradients in U.S. cohorts of white and black women born 1925-1959
Volume 27 - Article 6

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