Preferred level of sexual experience in a date or mate: The merger of two methodologies

Using evolutionary and sociological models, we predicted how much sexual experience was desired by men and women for a casual dating relationship versus a marital relationship. We used a combined mate‐selection questionnaire and experimental paradigm to examine more systematically men's and women's (N = 436) desires for different levels of sexual experience in a potential partner. When rating either a casual dating or a marital partner, participants gave higher desirability ratings to chastity than to either moderate or extensive sexual experience; furthermore, moderate sexual experience was perceived as more desirable than extensive sexual experience. Contrary to our predictions, no gender differences in desirability ratings were found for the various levels of sexual experience. We also examined how sociosexual orientation (i.e., degree of sexual permissiveness; see Simpson & Gangestad, 1991a) might be related to desirability ratings for sexual (in)experience in a partner within each gender. Unrestricted (i.e., permissive) women gave higher desirability ratings than did restricted women to moderate and considerable levels of sexual experience, whereas restricted women gave higher desirability ratings to chastity than did unrestricted women. For men, sociosexual orientation was unrelated to preferences for sexual experience in a partner.