Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Sexuality & Culture
Publication Date
3-2025
Keywords
Double standard, Sexual attitudes, Gender differences, Casual sex, First impressions, Sexual stereotypes, Online dating profiles
Abstract
An experimental vignette study was conducted to examine the pervasiveness of sexual stereotypes that women (although not men) who engage in casual sex are perceived to have lower self-esteem–and are considered to be less desirable for a relationship–than those who do not engage in casual sex. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, we embedded information about the recent relationship history (two casual sexual relationships vs. two committed sexual relationships) in a hypothetical online dating profile, and also manipulated the profile author’s gender. The participants (N = 318, obtained from two college settings and through Prolific) forecasted that an online profile statement that referred to casual sexual partners would lead to less overall attraction (by other users) than a statement that referred to committed relationships. However, this difference was found regardless of the author’s gender (i.e., no evidence was found for a double standard). Furthermore, participants did not stereotype the hypothetical woman (or man) as having lower self-esteem if they had casual sex partners. The author’s sexual history also did not affect the participants’ ratings of their desirability as a partner, with the exception that the author who had prior casual sexual partners was assumed to be more attractive for a short-term relationship than the author with prior committed sexual partners, and regardless of the author’s gender. The findings are discussed in the contexts of first impressions made in real-world settings, waning double standards in a society of increased egalitarianism, and changing cultural, sexual scripts.
Funding Source
Funding from Illinois State University as part of a teaching/mentoring award granted to the first author paid for the Prolific sample. This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Springer Nature.
DOI
10.1007/s12119-025-10343-2
Recommended Citation
Sprecher, S., Verette-Lindenbaum, J., Felmlee, D. et al. Is There a Sexual Stereotype Linking Casual Sex with Low Self-Esteem?. Sexuality & Culture (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10343-2
Comments
First published in Sexuality & Culture: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10343-2
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.