What researchers say about casual sex

Casual sex covers a wide range of arrangements, from a single encounter between strangers to a long friendship that includes sex. Public discussion of it often leans on assumptions, and a small group of sexuality researchers in Canada and elsewhere has spent years testing which of those assumptions hold up.

Researchers interviewed in the early 2010s have focused on exactly that, and their comments summarise several recurring themes in the field.

Why definitions keep shifting

Terms such as one-night stand, booty call and friends with benefits are used loosely, and researchers have worked to pin them down. A one-night stand is usually understood as sex between two people who meet and leave together, then go their separate ways. Counting such encounters is difficult, though, because some of them turn into dating. People who later form a relationship often stop describing the first night as a one-night stand, which leaves surveys with fuzzy numbers.

Gender and willingness

On average, men in many surveys report greater readiness for sexual activity early in a relationship or with multiple partners than women do. Cross-cultural findings on frequency of sex and willingness to have sex with a new partner point in a similar direction. Researchers disagree about how much of this reflects desire and how much reflects social desirability, since a sexually active man tends to be viewed more favourably than a sexually active woman.

One hypothesis in the field is that women might describe casual sex as a way of starting a relationship because that is a more socially accepted reason. Later research has aimed at testing and complicating such ideas.

Emotional impact

Researchers have argued that casual arrangements can affect men and women to a similar degree, and that a main factor is the expectation each person brings. If one participant secretly hopes for a romance while the other sees the arrangement as purely physical, disappointment is common. Positive outcomes are also reported and appear to be personal rather than gendered.

Double standards in partner preference

Studies also document a sexual double standard, in which some people judge women who have many partners or have sex early more harshly than men in the same position. Attitudes appear to be shifting, though research samples and friend groups can give a skewed picture of how widespread any view is.

Erotic photography and pornography

Some researchers have also studied erotic photography, which they describe as often subject-driven: the person photographed helps shape the atmosphere and is often the main audience for the images. Pornography, by contrast, is typically made for outside viewers, and its primary purpose is arousal. Erotic images often leave much unshown, while pornography does not. Both categories are subjective, and not everyone accepts the distinction.