The influence of sensitivity to social reputation on men’s short-term mating orientation

Abstract

It is widely assumed that men are more oriented toward short-term mating than women. However, this may not be the case because short-term mating may imply a variety of costs for men (e.g., being thought of as a “womanizer” could impair their chances of finding a desirable long-term mate). We hypothesized that men suppress their sexual desires when they are sensitive toward their reputation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment. Results showed that men exhibited greater desire for short-term sexual relationship than women when they did not care about their reputation, but when they did, they were observed not to exhibit any greater desire than women. It should be noted that these tendencies were observed only for participants with a girlfriend/boyfriend. We discussed the effect of sensitivity to social reputation on men’s short-term mating orientation.