Perceptions of sexual experience and preferences for dating and marriage.

Abstract: This study investigated the variables that influence perceptions of someone's sexual experience and their desirability as a dating and marriage partner. Participants were given information about an opposite sex target in which three dimensions of behaviour (number of different sexual activities, number of sexual partners, and number of times a person engaged in sexual activity) were experimentally manipulated. Participants were then asked to rate the sexual experience and desirability of the target as a date and marriage partner. The results indicated that the number of sexual activities and number of sexual partners influenced the ratings of the target's sexual experience as well as the desirability as a date and marriage partner. As predicted, the targets who had engaged in a high number of sexual activities with a high number of sexual partners were perceived as having a greater degree of sexual experience and were rated less desirable as a marriage partner by both men and women. Contrary to predictions, this was also true for ratings of the target's desirability as a date. The results were discussed in terms of the meaning of sexual experience and evolutionary theory.

Key words: sexual experience, dating desirability, marriage desirability.

Introduction

Sex researchers often describe participants in their studies as "sexually experienced" (e.g., Wiederman, 2001), or they may refer to individuals (targets) being evaluated by their research participants, as sexually experienced (e.g., Garcia, 1982). Despite frequent use of sexual experience as a measure, there appears to be little uniformity in the way that researchers have defined or operationalized this term. One area of study in which sexual experience has been widely used concerns how one person's perception of another's sexual experience influences their evaluation of that person and particularly so when assessing that person as a potential mate or spouse (e.g., Sprecher, Regan, McKinney, Maxwell, & Wazienski, 1997).

One problem with the experimental research in this area is that the term "sexual experience" has been operationally defined, and thus manipulated, in different ways. For example, Istvan and Griffitt (1980) presented to research participants evaluating target subjects as potential dates or marriage partners, individuals who had engaged in varying numbers of different types of sexual activities. O'Sullivan (1995) and Sprecher et al. (1997) manipulated the target's sexual experience differently by varying the number of sexual partners that person had. Even with a similar parameter, O'Sullivan specified the actual number of sexual partners whereas Sprecher et al. (1997) used measures like "few" and "several". Neither study specified what was meant by "sexual partner". While it is assumed that a sexual partner is someone with whom the target has had sexual intercourse, it may not always be understood by the participant in that manner (see Peterson & Muehlenhard, 2004; Sanders & Reinisch, 1999). In some cases, research in this area does not include a manipulation check to see whether in fact the participants see the target as "sexually experienced".

The primary goal of the present study is to understand what guides individuals' judgments of sexual experience. That is, what kind of information leads individuals to apply the term sexually experienced to others and how does this information influence assessment as potential partners?

If we think of sexual experience in a general way as referring to sexual behaviours that a person has engaged in, then the term sexual experience can be defined on at least three dimensions. One dimension is the number of different sexual activities that a person has engaged in. Someone who has engaged in 10 different sexual activities could be said to be more sexually experienced than someone who has only engaged in three. A second dimension is the number of different partners a person has engaged in sexual activities with. For example, a person who has had sexual intercourse with five different partners could be seen as more sexually experienced than someone who has had intercourse with only one partner. A third dimension is the number of times that a person has engaged in sexual activities. For example, everything else being equal, the greater the number of times a person has engaged in sexual activities, the more sexually experienced they may be seen to be. Sexual experience might thus be operationalized to consider variety of sexual activities, number of partners, and number of sexual experiences.