Imagine walking down a street on your merry way to the super market, fairly mundane occurrence right? Wouldn’t it really improve the situation if an attractive female walks up to you, shines a smile of pearly whites, introduces herself and invites you to bed? Not as much as you think.

The setup was part of a controlled study carried out in 1989 by Dr. Clark and Hatfield to identify primary gender differences in sexual behavior. The findings reflected a 70% likelihood that the average male will accept the proposition. In an unfortunate turn of events, the original study found no female subject who responded positively to the indecent proposal.

The findings then raise the million dollar question of why men are more willing to engage in casual sexual encounters while women are adamant of their position with utter certainty.

The evolutionary theory argues that men driven by their instinctual drives have little restraint in spreading their seed (so to speak) while women are more interested in obtaining the security of a man who is able to provide for her and her offspring hence the discretion.

The study was replicated in different cultures and settings, continuously obtaining the same results, though the percentage of men who accepted the offer varied among cultures. A French study also found that men weren’t very concerned about the attractiveness of the females offering to go to bed with them.

67% of men accepted the offer from unattractive women while 87% accepted the offer from attractive ones, forming a slight difference. Women meanwhile had zero tolerance for the offer regardless of how attractive the male was.Even though the study really is an interesting one, it lacks validity in the context that real life situations are rarely as forthcoming and abrupt.

Researchers formulated that men who offer sexual services on first time encounters were probably perceived as repulsive due to factors other than that of sexual inhibition. Conley (2011) considered the fact that men who offer sexual activity may be perceived as deviant or as possessing lower replication value because they were strangers and replaced the strange man with a celebrity. Though celebrities really are strangers, people feel that they know them and hence provided the ideal situation for the study.

If Brad Pitt were to walk up to a woman and offer the same sexual proposition, women were much more likely to accept the offer, the specific number being over 50% of the sample. 75% of males accepted the offer when it was made by a female celebrity, Jennifer Lopez in this case.

The surprise however was that the findings disproved the evolutionary theory of sexual availability in women. When Brad Pitt was replaced by Donald Trump the numbers plummeted, raising the dubious note that providing wasn’t top priority of a casual sexual encounter.

Conley examined a host of variables that were suspected to be the causal factors for casual sex. The variables considered included gender, attractiveness, concerns about danger, social status, sexual capabilities, faithfulness, worries about an STD, warmth and mental illness.

The findings showed that when security needs are met, or when a person feels secure to proceed; attractiveness and promise of sexual satisfaction were the prime determinants of a casual sexual encounter occurring. However gender remained an important variable considering that men were still more likely to accept an offer for sex when compared to women. However after the cariables were dealt with or eliminated, the difference got much slimmer.

The conclusion really is that men tend to be more reckless when considering sexual partners. However evolutionary theory of reproduction as a sole determinant of sexual longing seems inappropriate in the modern context where men and women alike are open to casual sexual encounters when safety factors are met.
 

By Dilshan Senaratne

Compiled with research sourced from Clark, R. D. & Hatfield, E. Gender differences in receptivity to sexual offers. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality.
Conley, T.D. (2011). Perceived Proposer Personality Characteristics and Gender Differences in Acceptance of Casual Sex Offers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Gueguen, N. (2011). Effects of Solicitor Sex and Attractiveness on Receptivity to Sexual Offers: A Field Study. Arch Sex Behav.