Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

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Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners

Received: 27 December 2014    Accepted: 11 January 2015    Published: 21 January 2015
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Abstract

What is the reason for gender discrepancy in reporting lifetime sex partners (SPs) when people are asked for the number of SPs they have had? Based on the idea of the sexual double standard, men might over-report while women might under-report the number of SPs. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this gender discrepancy could be explained by the sexual double standard or not. Late adolescents were asked to report the number of their lifetime SPs and to assess how they perceive sexual behaviors of an imaginary peer who reports a large number of SPs. Data were collected through a one-to-one interview sessions (over 90% of the sample). The lifetime number of SPs for men was almost 6 times higher than that for women. Men showed more envious attitudes and assessed the peer’s report as less factual when the peer man had more SPs. Women were not willing to accept the man as their prospective partner if he had many SPs. Also, the sexual behavior of the peer woman with many SPs was deemed undesirable by women. The findings imply that men might inflate their reports of the number of lifetime SPs, supporting the old sexual double standard. The findings also imply that women might under-report their lifetime SPs, and seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about the topic of the sexual double standard.

DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11
Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2015)
Page(s) 1-4
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sexual Double Standard, Sex Partner, Casual Sex, Over-Reporting, Under-Reporting

References
[1] Brown, N., & Sinclair, R. (1999). Estimating number of lifetime sexual partners: Men and women do it differently. Journal of Sex Research, 36, 292-297.
[2] Pedersen, W., Miller, L., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A., & Yang, Y. (2002). Evolved sex differences in the number of partners desired? The long and the short of it. Psychological Science, 13 (2), 157-161.
[3] Hyde, J., & Oliver, M. (2000). Gender differences in sexuality: Results from a meta-analysis. In C. Tavris & J. White (Eds.), Sexuality, society, and feminism (pp. 57-77). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
[4] Nnko, S., Boerma, J., Urassa, M., Mwaluko, G., & Zaba, B. (2004). Secretive females or swaggering males? An assessment of the quality of sexual partnership reporting in rural Tanzania. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 299-310.
[5] Laumann, E., Gagnon, J., Michael, R., & Michaels, S. (1994). The social organization of sexuality: Sexual practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[6] Oliver, M., & Hyde, J. (1993). Gender differences in sexuality: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 29-51.
[7] Gentry, M. (1998). The sexual double standard: The influence of number of relationships and level of sexual activity on judgments of women and men. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 505-511.
[8] Kreager, D., & Staff, J. (2009). The sexual double standard and adolescent peer acceptance. Social Psychology Quarterly, 72 (2), 143-164.
[9] Alexander, M., & Fisher, T. (2003). Truth and consequences: Using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self-reported sexuality. Journal of Sex Research, 40, 27-35.
[10] Brody, S. (1997). Sex at Risk. London: Transaction Publishers.
[11] King, J. (2005). The Victorian woman question in contemporary feminist fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[12] Sprecher, S., McKinney, K., & Orbuch, T. (1987). Has the double standard disappeared? An experiment test. Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 24-31.
Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong, Gwangju, Korea

  • Department of Psychology, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong, Gwangju, Korea

  • Department of Psychology, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong, Gwangju, Korea

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  • APA Style

    Seojin Choi, Dong-ouk Yang, Gahyun Youn. (2015). Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 4(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11

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    Seojin Choi; Dong-ouk Yang; Gahyun Youn. Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2015, 4(1), 1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11

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    AMA Style

    Seojin Choi, Dong-ouk Yang, Gahyun Youn. Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners. Psychol Behav Sci. 2015;4(1):1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11,
      author = {Seojin Choi and Dong-ouk Yang and Gahyun Youn},
      title = {Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {4},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-4},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20150401.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20150401.11},
      abstract = {What is the reason for gender discrepancy in reporting lifetime sex partners (SPs) when people are asked for the number of SPs they have had? Based on the idea of the sexual double standard, men might over-report while women might under-report the number of SPs. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this gender discrepancy could be explained by the sexual double standard or not. Late adolescents were asked to report the number of their lifetime SPs and to assess how they perceive sexual behaviors of an imaginary peer who reports a large number of SPs. Data were collected through a one-to-one interview sessions (over 90% of the sample). The lifetime number of SPs for men was almost 6 times higher than that for women. Men showed more envious attitudes and assessed the peer’s report as less factual when the peer man had more SPs. Women were not willing to accept the man as their prospective partner if he had many SPs. Also, the sexual behavior of the peer woman with many SPs was deemed undesirable by women. The findings imply that men might inflate their reports of the number of lifetime SPs, supporting the old sexual double standard. The findings also imply that women might under-report their lifetime SPs, and seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about the topic of the sexual double standard.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    AB  - What is the reason for gender discrepancy in reporting lifetime sex partners (SPs) when people are asked for the number of SPs they have had? Based on the idea of the sexual double standard, men might over-report while women might under-report the number of SPs. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this gender discrepancy could be explained by the sexual double standard or not. Late adolescents were asked to report the number of their lifetime SPs and to assess how they perceive sexual behaviors of an imaginary peer who reports a large number of SPs. Data were collected through a one-to-one interview sessions (over 90% of the sample). The lifetime number of SPs for men was almost 6 times higher than that for women. Men showed more envious attitudes and assessed the peer’s report as less factual when the peer man had more SPs. Women were not willing to accept the man as their prospective partner if he had many SPs. Also, the sexual behavior of the peer woman with many SPs was deemed undesirable by women. The findings imply that men might inflate their reports of the number of lifetime SPs, supporting the old sexual double standard. The findings also imply that women might under-report their lifetime SPs, and seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about the topic of the sexual double standard.
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