Willingness to engage in casual sex - The role of parental qualities and perceived risk of aggression

Sexually dimorphic mate selection strategies were examined in 200 universit y students reporting their willingness to engage in casual sexual encounter s with hypothetical individuals of the opposite sex. Using a questionnaire format, the possibility of forming a long-term relationship was manipulated , while risk of disease, pregnancy, and detection was eliminated across all conditions. In addition, potential partners varied in level of attractiven ess, and in personality and behavioral characteristics. As expected, men re ported a greater anticipated willingness to engage in sexual intercourse ac ross all conditions compared with women. The possibility of forming a long- term relationship elevated women's, but not men's, willingness for sexual i ntercourse. While a potential partner's attractiveness had a significant po sitive overall effect on responses, reducing their relative attractiveness had a greater negative impact on men's responses. Reference to the parental qualities of a potential partner significantly increased women's, but not men's, anticipated willingness for sexual intercourse Describing a hypothet ical partner as non-aggressive (safe) marginally increased women's willingn ess (p < .09) and did not affect men's responses. The wording of items rele vant to this condition may have resulted in the potential partner sounding "wimpy" rather than nonaggressive, and this may have reduced the expected e ffect of this manipulation, The possibility that women may trade off person ality and behavioral characteristics with attractiveness to a greater degre e than men when assessing potential mates is considered.