Safety and Pleasure Motives Determine Perceived Risks and Rewards in Casual Sex

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12466006
AutoresD Rodrigues (0000-0001-5921-7819, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, autor correspondente), A Catarina Carvalho (0000-0002-0936-9424, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa), Rhonda Balzarini (0000-0001-7443-1266, Texas State University), Richard O De Visser (0000-0003-1174-1499, Brighton and Sussex Medical School), Margarida V Garrido (0000-0003-3651-9245, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa), Marília Prada (0000-0002-6845-8881, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa), Diniz Lopes (0000-0002-4353-2248, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)
Ano2024
Volume28
Fascículo6
Páginas2559-2580
Data de publicação2024-06-19
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSexuality & Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1095-5143 • E-ISSN: 1936-4822
EditoraSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s12119-024-10243-x
OpenAlexW4399809874
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas58

People differ in their predispositions to value safety maintenance (i.e., disease prevention regulatory focus) or pleasure pursuit (i.e., pleasure promotion regulatory focus). Extending recent research, results of a cross-sectional study with participants living in Portugal and Spain ( N = 770) showed that these individual differences resulted in a trade-off between potential health risks and pleasure rewards in sexual practices and experiences with casual partners. Specifically, people who were more focused on promotion (vs. prevention) reported riskier and more unrestricted sexual activities (more frequent condomless sex activities; more casual partners) and experienced more positive sexual outcomes (more sexual satisfaction; more positive and less negative affect related to condomless sex). This pattern of results remained the same after controlling for country differences, suggesting the robustness of our findings across different cultural contexts. Our study shows the complexity of sexual decisions and align with our reasoning that prevention-focused people tend to prioritize health safety, whereas promotion-focused people tend to prioritize sexual pleasure. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed

Casual · Pleasure · Political science · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology