A new study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior explored how individuals might alter their self-disclosure of sociosexual orientation in the presence of an attractive other.
Social desirability bias refers to the tendency to present oneself in a manner that is likely to be viewed favorably by others. This is seen as an adaptive strategy to achieve social goals. Some scholars draw a parallel between self-presentation and theatrical performance, where each social interaction serves as an opportunity to assume an appealing role. The influence of an audience, especially one deemed important, is crucial in this context. The presence of influential or attractive individuals, for instance, can significantly sway a person’s behavior, driven by the anticipation of either approval or disapproval.
Research suggests a strong impact of social desirability bias, especially in domains bound by rigorous social norms, such as sexual behavior. Consider the sexual double standard wherein promiscuous behavior is judged more harshly for women than for men. The current research investigates how people present their sociosexual orientation, a measure of sexual permissiveness, in socially charged situations.
Researcher Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk first conducted a pilot study to select attractive models for the main study. Participants were shown short clips of potential models of the opposite sex; one male and one female model, who were rated as above average attractive and did not differ from each other in terms of attractiveness, were selected.
The main study involved 244 participants recruited through snowball sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to a control group or one of two experimental groups. In the experimental conditions, participants encountered an attractive male or female model, while the control group involved no others.
The Sociosexual Orientation Scale, which comprises three subscales, including past casual sexual activity, attitude toward unrestricted sexuality, and sexual desire for others without romantic relationship, was administered verbally by the model in the experimental conditions and self-reported by participants in the control condition. Participants in all conditions privately reported their sexual orientation on a scale of 1 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), as well as their age, sex, relationship status and sociopolitical worldview (i.e., conservative, liberal).
A follow-up study was conducted to address the limitations of the control group. Specifically, while the experimental conditions involved verbalization of responses, the control group participants completed the key questionnaire in silence. As verbalization can affect responding, the researcher conducted an additional study with 188 participants to determine whether form of responding in an empty room (i.e., silent and written, or verbal into recording device) influences reporting of sociosexuality.
The results revealed that both men and women tend to report a more restricted sociosexual orientation when in the presence of an attractive person, regardless of the model’s gender. Importantly, this effect was specific to the Desire subscale of sociosexual orientation and did not extend to past sexual Behavior or Attitudes towards sexual permissiveness. Importantly, the follow-up study confirmed that this effect did not emerge from differences in modes of responding.
While people are comfortable sharing their past sexual behaviors and general attitudes towards sex, they are more reserved about disclosing personal desires, particularly in the presence of potential sexual partners. This reservation could stem from concerns about how expressing such desires might impact interactions with the attractive individual and potentially affect their reputation if gossip were to spread. The reluctance to disclose desires could be interpreted as either an altruistic consideration for the comfort of the attractive individual or an egoistic concern for one’s own image.
The author suggests that future research recruit more than one male and one female model for robust generalization of results.
The study, “People Declare Lowered Levels of Sociosexual Desire in the Presence of an Attractive Audience”, was authored by Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk.
