Behavioral Ecology Blog

Well scientists can now predict your most secret behavior by assessing your scores on various tests of personality.. Turns out- those warm and fuzzy types- and the anti-social are much more likely to be sexually promiscuous…. This story, predictably covered by LiveScience (Who Sleeps Around? Scientists Know) is based on a paper in the Journal of Personality Research by Mackey and Mackey (The interpersonal meaning of sexual promiscuity). Interestingly, (see below) this type of research can be used as sound advice for people looking for sexual partners AND monogamous relationships….

ABSTRACT: In order to investigate the interpersonal meaning of sexual promiscuity, the relations between various sexual activities and the Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC) were examined. Two hundred and ten participants (105 women and 105 men; mean age = 24.88 years) indicated the number of people they had engaged in various sexual activates with (e.g., oral manipulation of genitals, sexual intercourse, etc.). These participants’ interpersonal styles were also assessed using the primary dimensions of the IPC: dominance and warmth. As predicted, a positive linear relation was found, for men and women, between interpersonal dominance and the number of partners a person had for each type of sexual activity. Additionally, for both men and women, a curvilinear relation was found between interpersonal warmth and the number of partners a person had for each type of sexual activity. Specifically, participants who were either extremely warm or extremely cold tended to have more sexual partners than individuals who were moderately warm. These findings extend past research linking the Five Factor Model traits of extraversion and agreeableness to sexual promiscuity and also help illustrate the dual interpersonal meaning of sexual experience.

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Methods Section: … four activities were selected that represented behaviors a respondent would perform on a partner and that were applicable to both men and women. Additionally, these four activities represent different levels of sexual intimacy ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse. These activities were: (1) One minute continuous lip kissing, (2) Manual manipulation of nude partner’s genitals, (3) Oral manipulation of nude partner’s genitals, and (4) Sexual intercourse, face to face. For each sexual activity, participants were asked to indicate how many different people with which they had engaged in that activity.

Above is the money graph- where negative values represent “cold” personalities, and positive values are “warmer” personalities.. As you can see, middle of the road types are not giving it up all that often…

You know, in medicine, there is a huge push to let basic/clinical research guide clinical decision making. This makes sense- certainly we should be using therapies that have been shown to be effective and safe (See post on research in critical care). Seems like there has not been a similar push in the fields of dating and romance- although there is certainly enough research to guide decision making.. So what does the research suggest here? Basically, it suggests that if you want a one night stand- you might focus on either the “everybodies best Friend” type, or that girl with the attitude that people are generally afraid to approach…