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Evaluations of friends-with-benefits relationship scenarios: Is there evidence of a sexual double standard?

2013; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/cjhs.2128

2291-7063

Angela D. Weaver, Marvin Claybourn, Kelly L. MacKeigan,

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

More than half of university students report having had a friends-with-benefits relationship (FWBR), i.e., recurring sexual activity between friends who do not define their relationship as romantic, yet little is known about how people in FWBRs are judged by others. For instance, is there a sexual double standard whereby women are judged more negatively than men? In the present study, 404 university students read one of four randomly assigned scenarios describing an FWBR (scenarios varied on character gender and FWBR experience) and then completed measures of their judgment of the main character, their predictions about the relationship depicted, their beliefs about whether the character should keep the relationship secret, and their perception of how the character would be judged by peers. Two respondent-level variables (respondent gender; respondent FWBR experience) were also examined as predictors. Half of the participants (52.5%) had themselves experienced an FWBR, with a majority evaluating these experiences positively. Male respondents rated scenario characters more positively and made more positive relationship predictions than did female respondents. Respondents who had personal experience of their own FWBR rated characters more positively and made more positive relationship predictions than those who had never experienced an FWBR. There was no evidence of a sexual double standard in character judgments. However, relationship predictions and estimates of others' judgments were more negative when the character was female and there was a greater perceived need for secrecy. Thus, the current research did not support the existence of a sexual double standard for FWBRs, but may have suggested the perception of one.