Recent research published in journals personality and individual differences We provide evidence that a person’s willingness to engage in casual sex is associated with different psychological characteristics depending on gender. For men, this trait has little to do with how they view themselves or their morals, but for women, it tends to be associated with low self-esteem and weak moral orientation.
Sociosexuality is a psychological concept that describes a person’s willingness to engage in sexual activity outside of a committed romantic relationship. People with an open-ended sociosexual orientation are comfortable with casual sex and don’t need love or emotional intimacy before becoming physically intimate. On the other hand, people with restricted sociosexual orientation prefer to establish a strong emotional bond and commitment before having sex.
Men, on average, tend to report higher open-ended sociosexual orientation, but there is wide variation by gender. This wide variation led scientists to wonder whether sociosexuality might have different psychological associations for men than for women. Specifically, the scientists wanted to know whether openness to casual sex had a different relationship to how men and women judged their self-esteem and moral character.
Some historical evidence suggests that society judges women who have multiple sexual partners much more harshly than men. Because of these cultural pressures, scientists thought that women who have casual sex might have more negative feelings about themselves. They also thought that these differences in social expectations might cause differences in the association of sociosexuality with men’s and women’s moral and immoral tendencies.
“Although it is well established that men tend to score higher than women on sociosexual orientation (the willingness to engage in sexual activity outside of a committed relationship), the within-sex variation is actually much larger than the average difference between men and women, meaning there are more differences in sociosexual orientation between men and women than there are between men and women,” said study author Charlotte Kinlade, assistant professor of psychology at Kennesaw State University.
“What we realized was that there was a lack of research asking whether intra-gender differences mean different things to men and women, especially when it comes to how people feel about themselves and how they tend toward moral or immoral behavior. Although some studies suggested the possibility of gender differences, the evidence was scattered and inconclusive, so we wanted to address the issue more comprehensively.”
Scientists recruited 295 adult participants from the United States through an online survey platform. The sample included 120 women, with an average age of approximately 37 years. Participants completed a series of randomized questionnaires designed to measure sexual attitudes, self-judgment, and moral orientation.
The scientists measured sociosexual orientation by asking participants about their past sexual behavior, attitudes toward casual sex, and desire for brief sexual encounters. To assess core self-judgments, the survey included questions about self-esteem, integrity, and a general sense of purpose in life. Authenticity refers to the extent to which a person feels that their actions are in line with their true inner self, rather than feeling like they are controlled by external forces.
Scientists also measured several moral and immoral orientations using validated psychological scales. They assessed moral orientation by asking questions about personal integrity, frequency of recent helping behaviors, and altruistic reasons for volunteering. They assessed immoral orientation by measuring the tendency to lie, the rationalization of unethical behavior, and moral disengagement, which is the cognitive habit of ignoring moral standards to excuse bad behavior.
When looking at the data, scientists found different patterns for men and women. For the men in our sample, sociosexual orientation had little to do with self-esteem, sense of identity, and sense of purpose. Additionally, whether men were willing to engage in casual sex was not significantly related to their moral orientation, such as personal integrity or tendency to help others.
However, men who reported higher sociosexual orientation showed weak positive relationships with several immoral orientations. Specifically, these men were slightly more likely to routinely lie and justify immoral behavior. Other than a slight increase in certain dishonest behaviors, men’s sexual strategies did not appear to have a significant impact on their broader psychological or moral profiles.
For women, the relationship between sociability and psychological characteristics was significantly different. Women who reported higher levels of sociosexual orientation tended to have lower self-esteem, a decreased sense of identity, and a lower sense of purpose in life. These negative associations with self-judgment were mostly small to medium in size but statistically significant.
In addition to lower self-judgment, women’s higher sociosexual orientation was associated with lower moral orientation. Women who were more open to casual sex reported lower levels of personal integrity and fewer recent helping behaviors. They also had higher scores on measures of immoral orientation. This means they are more likely to deviate from morality, routinely lie, and justify bad behavior.
The scientists verified that these differences between men and women were statistically significant and not due to limited statistical ranges or unreliable measurements. They also confirmed that the differences were not simply due to the age of the participants or how the measurements were recorded. This data clearly shows that sociosexuality carries different psychological weight for women than for men.
“The correlations we found for women were generally small to moderate, which has real implications in personality research,” Kinrad told SciPost. “The pattern was more important than any single effect size: across different measures of self-judgment, moral orientation, and immoral orientation, the direction was strikingly consistent for women but conspicuously absent for men.”
“The main point is that sociosexual orientation does not appear to have the same psychological relevance for men and women. For men in our sample, high sociosexuality had little to do with how they felt about themselves or their moral orientation. For women, high sociosexuality was associated with lower self-esteem, a lower sense of authenticity and purpose, weaker moral orientations (such as honesty and prosocial behavior), and a stronger tendency toward moral deviance and lying.”
Although the data shows a clear pattern, scientists urge the public not to misinterpret these findings as an attack on women. Because this study was based on self-reported surveys completed at one point in time, the exact cause-and-effect relationship remains unclear.
“Theoretically, both pathways are plausible, so we don’t know whether heightened sociosexuality leads to lower self-esteem in women, or whether pre-existing lower self-esteem predisposes women to short-term mating,” Kinlade said. “Importantly, we’re not saying that women with more sociosexual tendencies are worse people. The data reflect a correlation, not a cause. One explanation is sociocultural: women are exposed to harsher social judgments for the same sexual behaviors, and that external pressure can be internalized.”
Scientists are now proposing to conduct longitudinal studies that follow the same people over long periods of time. This approach can help determine whether changes in self-esteem or moral orientation occur before or after a person engages in casual sex. Future research should also include more diverse global samples to see if these gender differences exist in cultures with more egalitarian sexual norms.
“One of the directions we’re interested in is the role of autonomy. Do women who feel truly in charge of their sexual choices show the same pattern as women who feel social pressure?” Kinrade explained. “Long-term studies will help clarify causal relationships.”
The study, “Men’s and Women’s Sociosexual Orientations: Considering Core Self-Judgments and (Non-)Moral Orientations,” was authored by William Hurt, Charlotte Kinraid, Braden T. Hall, and Daniel E. Wahlers.
