Original articlesWhat Distinguishes Women with Unusually High Numbers of Sex Partners?
Section snippets
Sociosexuality and sexual dimorphism
The sex difference in sociosexuality is large by conventional standards, perhaps one standard deviation (Oliver and Hyde 1993). If the sex difference in sociosexuality is an adaptation, as the most widely accepted evolutionary account hypothesizes, what specific developmental processes may be involved? The most influential general theory of innate sex differences is that early, probably prenatal, androgens organize males' brains differently than females' brains. This theory has been
The present study
The present study is an attempt to replicate and extend prior findings on female sociosexual variation. We recruited two subsamples of noncollege women who differed considerably in their sociosexual histories. We explored three general questions. First, do women with large numbers of sex partners differ from other women in their real or self-perceived mate value? Second, do women who have many sex partners report more unstable rearing environments compared with other women? Third, are women
Participants
Heterosexual women were recruited using advertisements in a free alternative city newspaper. Two advertisements were used to gather subjects. One advertisement stated that single women, aged 25–35 years were wanted for a research study on female sexuality. The advertisement also stated the desire for women who have had a relatively large number of sex partners. This advertisement was used to recruit women with high numbers of lifetime sex partners (the High group). The other advertisement, used
Results
There were 39 women in this study: 20 women with high numbers of lifetime sex partners (range 25–200) and 19 women with lower numbers (range 0–10). The sample was 65% white, 18% African-American, 8% Asian-American, and 9% other ethnic background. Age ranged from 25 to 35 years (mean 30). The average participant had at least some college education. The two groups did not differ significantly in their ethnic backgrounds, age, or education. Although all participants were single at the time of the
Discussion
In this study, we recruited two groups of women who differed widely in their sociosexual histories and compared them on a variety of measures related to both evolutionary and developmental hypotheses. Strengths of our study include the inclusion of a subgroup of women with extremely high numbers of partners, which should yield much greater statistical power compared with unselected samples of similar size, and the fact that, unlike most other samples, our participants were not undergraduate
References (27)
Sex differences in disposition towards kin, security of attachment, and sociosexuality as a function of parental divorce
Evolution and Human Behavior
(1998)- et al.
Sexual behavior in adolescent and adult females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(1992) - et al.
Sex differences in intra-sex variations in human mating tacticsan evolutionary approach
Ethology and Sociobiology
(1995) Psychoendocrine research on sexual orientation—current status and future options
- et al.
Adult erotosexual status and fetal hormonal masculinization and demasculinization46,XX congenital virilizing adrenal hyperplasia and 46,XY androgen-insensitivity syndrome compared
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(1984) - et al.
Personality traits, Cluster B personality disorders, and sociosexuality
Journal of Research in Personality
(1996) - et al.
Low-investment copulationsex diffferences in motivations and emotional reactions
Ethology and Sociobiology
(1995) - et al.
Psychosexual development of women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
Hormones and Behavior
(1996) - Bailey, J.M., Finkel, E., Blackwelder, K., and Bailey, T. Masculinity, femininity, and sexual orientation. Unpublished...
- et al.
A. Effects of gender and sexual orientation on evolutionarily relevant aspects of human mating psychology
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
(1994)
Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategyan evolutionary theory of socialization
Child Development
Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences
Psychological Science
Sex differences in jealousyevolution, physiology, and psychology
Psychological Science
Cited by (87)
Evolutionary ecological insights into the suppression of female sexuality
2023, Current Research in Ecological and Social PsychologyFemininity in men and masculinity in women is positively related to sociosexuality
2020, Personality and Individual DifferencesCitation Excerpt :As unrestricted sociosexuality can be considered a male-typical trait, we might expect that the same processes would lead to higher sociosexuality. Various studies have indeed shown that higher masculinity is linked to higher sociosexuality and numbers of sexual partners in both women (e.g., Burri, Spector, & Rahman, 2015; Howard & Perilloux, 2017; Mikach & Bailey, 1999; Ostovich & Sabini, 2004) and men (Arnocky et al., 2018; Gallup, White, & Gallup, 2007; Shoup & Gallup, 2008). Other research, however, shows that both feminine women (Manning & Fink, 2008; Rahman, Korhonen, & Aslam, 2005) and feminine men report higher promiscuity than their more masculine counterparts (e.g., Ostovich & Sabini, 2004; Zietsch et al., 2008).
Self-esteem as an adaptive sociometer of mating success: Evaluating evidence of sex-specific psychological design across 10 world regions
2019, Personality and Individual Differences2D:4D digit ratio and its relations to cross-sex and same-sex friendship choices
2018, Personality and Individual DifferencesCitation Excerpt :This finding is parallel to the results in men described above and could imply that prenatal testosterone leads to early brain developments that foster sex drive not only in men but also in women. This would contribute to the understanding that testosterone replacement therapy is also effective for women (e.g., Davis & Braunstein, 2012) and that women with larger numbers of sex partners display higher masculinity (Mikach & Bailey, 1999). Second, male-typed 2D:4D men showed larger numbers of general same-sex friends than female-typed men did.
Childhood harshness predicts long-lasting leader preferences
2017, Evolution and Human BehaviorExperimentally induced stress decreases ideal female reproductive timing
2015, PsychoneuroendocrinologyCitation Excerpt :Answers to each statement were given on a bipolar scale from Strongly Agree (4) to Strongly Disagree (−4). Higher scores indicate a less stressful family situation (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.81 and for our sample = 0.84) (Mikach and Bailey, 1999). There were no significant differences between conditions for this measure (see Table 2).