People strategically protect different aspects of their sexual reputation based on their relationship goals.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Psychology
Degree name
Master of Science
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2020
Authors
Hutchinson, Kaitlin
Abstract

Reputation management is integral to being part of a community and creating social connections. We propose that individuals may prioritise protecting different aspects of their sexual reputation to facilitate different relationship strategies. Specifically, people seeking long term relationships may prioritise sexual warmth and sexual morality, whereas people seeking a short term relationship may prioritise sexual competence. The current research consists of two pre-registered studies, both conducted on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk with a total of 639 participants. Overall, we found that participants were more protective of the reputational aspects that are most relevant to their relationship goals. Study 1 found that sexually restricted participants were more concerned for their sexual warmth and sexually morality than sexually unrestricted participants who were more concerned for their sexual competence. Study 2 manipulated socio-sexual orientation with two conditions: seeking a long term relationship (sexually restricted) vs seeking a short term relationship (sexually unrestricted). Study 2 found the same results as Study 1 with the exception that there was no significant difference between conditions for sexual competence. This shows that sexual competence may be of equal value when people are looking for both long term and short term relationships. This research shows that people can prioritise different aspects of their reputation in order to achieve their relationship goals. It is important in understanding the use of impression management of sexual reputation and how this effects our relationship outcomes.

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All Rights Reserved