312 Chapter 9pleasure, reduced loneliness, respect from
friends), whereas females identified more
costs associated with sex compared to males
(e.g., lose respect from friends, guilt, embar-
rassment; Deptula et al., 2006).
Second, men have more permissive stan-
dards compared to women, meaning men find
sex to be more acceptable in general. However,
sex differences in attitudes toward sex depend
on the degree of commitment in the relation-
ship. College students in the United States,
Russia, and Japan were asked how acceptable it
was to have intercourse on a first date, a casual
date, when seriously dating, when preengaged,
and when engaged (Sprecher & Hatfield, 1996).
Students rated acceptability for themselves, for
a typical male, and for a typical female. Not
surprisingly, students in all three countries
rated sexual intercourse as more acceptable as
the commitment of the relationship increased.
People in all three cultures agreed sexual in-
tercourse was not acceptable during the early
stages of a relationship. As shown in Figure 9.4,
in all countries, men viewed sexual intercourse
as more acceptable than women did during
the early stages of the relationship, but there
were no sex differences in acceptability during
the later stages of the relationship. When en-
gaged, about 90% of respondents gave at least
some approval to sexual intercourse. Americans
were more permissive than the Japanese, and
Russians fell between the two groups. These
cultural differences were strongest among the
more committed relationships. Overall, men
place greater emphasis on sex compared to
women in both homosexual and heterosexual
relationships (Peplau & Fingerhut, 2007), sug-
gesting that this is a domain of behavior that is
more strongly related to sex than status.
Women and men tend to believe there
is a double standard in regard to sex—that it is
more acceptable for men than women to en-
gage in sex. However, laboratory research is notvariability in female and male roles leading to
the perception of larger sex differences.Sexuality
Men seem to be more satisfied with their sexual
relationships than women. Across 29 coun-
tries, men reported higher sexual well-being
compared to women (Laumann et al., 2006).
The sex difference was larger in male-centered
countries, such as Brazil, Korea, and Morocco,
where there is a greater status differential be-
tween men and women. Men may be more
satisfied with sex than women because men are
more likely to initiate sex or because men are
more likely to disclose their sexual desires. In
a study of college dating couples, males were
more likely than females to discuss sex, includ-
ing their sexual desires, while females were
more likely than males to report that they had
difficulty getting their partner to do what they
wanted during sex (Greene & Faulkner, 2005).
Thus, here is one arena where men seem to
communicate more effectively than women.Attitudes Toward Sex.Sexual attitudes and
behaviors have become more permissive over
the years. In 1940, two-thirds of college women
and one-third of college men said that premari-
tal sex was wrong (Lance, 2007). Those num-
bers have decreased dramatically. Today, the
majority of women and men find sex between
an unmarried woman and man acceptable,
men slightly more so than women—63% of
men compared to 56% of women said that pre-
marital sex was morally acceptable (Saad, 2010).
There are some differences between
women’s and men’s attitudes about sex. First,
women have more negative attitudes toward
sex compared to men (Geer & Robertson,
2005). Even at younger ages, this seems to
be true. A study of adolescents showed that
males identified more benefits from hav-
ing sex compared to females (e.g., physicalM09_HELG0185_04_SE_C09.indd 312 6/21/11 12:40 PM