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Attitudes about promiscuity are changing, among college students anyway. Men and women are now judged more equally when it comes to sexual behavior.
More than 19,000 U.S. undergraduates were surveyed. The students had to respond to statements like “If women hook up or have sex with lots of people I respect them less.” And the researchers found that nearly half of the participants judged men and women by the same standards, and claimed to lose respect for either promiscuous men or women.
Only 12 percent held the traditional double standard where they’d look down on promiscuous women but not men. And 13 percent said they’d lose respect for men and not women. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
The trend seems to be driven by women. Fifty-four percent of the women subjects judged genders equally, but only 35 percent of males did.
Religion and geography still play influential roles in sexual attitudes. For example, Buddhist and Jewish students were less likely than Catholics to judge promiscuity. And west coast students were more forgiving than either Midwestern or east coast students. Maybe it’s the influence of the Beach Boys—or maybe it’s Katy Perry.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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9 Comments
Add CommentI see this as a step in the right direction. Maybe this new generation has a chance to change the world for the better. Many of the older ideas need to go away. Religion has a role to play but a limited one at best.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisabout time: if it feels good do it as many times as u like with as many people as u like , now start focusing on real problems, stupid funadeamtalists voting republican! great for the rick but screw the poor and shrinking middle class helping your fellow man heaven forbid!!! is socialism!! a bad diease! most fundamentalists dont know the the defintion of socialism its actually how a Christian should behave!!! as a socialist. odd the least religious contries are the most Christian acting , e.g. scandavian countries there are 4 of them
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder how much these results are skewed due to the fact that more women are going to college today than a decade ago - thus more are available for the study and more likely to vote against a double standard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think it's appropriate to say that attitudes toward sex are changing when, if I'm understanding it correctly, the study you're reporting on only did one survey. You can only say it's changing if you were comparing the 2012 survey to, say, a 1992 survey.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't believe the survey. Its still more acceptable for many men to cheat than women. Why? People usually tell a surveyor whatever is politically correct in an era. You are better at observing actual behavior. For example, in the early 1960s, most southern motel owners told surveyors they would never rent a room to blacks (because other whites looked down on this). But most secretly did and publicly lied about it. Lotharios such as Pres. Clinton are still forgiven more easily by women if they come back to their wives. It may come down to sociobiology. For example, a famous pop song tells men: "Lie to me, I promise, I will believe.... but don't leave me."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree. The only indication of any 'change' is the declaration, "Only 12 percent held the traditional double standard".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow many held the 'traditional' 'double standard' in the past? What was the change?
Who can tell me why the radio I get from differet passage is all the same???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA nice podcast, I believe, definitely a step forward an age of equality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy the way, could anyone tell me the name of that song in this podcast?
That would be California Girls by Katy Perry
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this