The role of emotional promiscuity in unprotected sex

Abstract

Sexual promiscuity is a known risk factor for unprotected sex. A related variable, emotional promiscuity, has conceptual relevance but has yet to be studied with respect to unprotected sex. Data from four studies (total N = 908) indicated that both sexual promiscuity and emotional promiscuity were associated with womens’ reports of unprotected sex. Independent of those contributions, the interaction between sexual promiscuity and emotional promiscuity was also significant for women: Scoring high on both variables was associated with the highest number of unprotected partners. This synergistic interaction emerged whether the question about number of unprotected partners referred to the past year or lifetime total. The interaction held up even after controlling for other relevant factors (lifetime partners, romantic beliefs, and attachment styles). In sum, among sexually active women, the susceptibility to falling in love puts them at risk for unprotected sex. Our discussion addresses possible mechanisms and why the key interaction only emerged in women.

Keywords:

• condoms
• emotional promiscuity
• health
• promiscuity
• sociosexuality

Notes

Notes

1. It is important to note we do not refer to emotional promiscuity in a pejorative way; rather we choose this term because it reflects – quite directly – the notion of falling in love indiscriminately.

2. Webster and Bryan (2007) recommend analysing SOI attitude and behavior facets separately. In this research, the two facets demonstrated nearly identical patterns of correlations. For the sake of simplicity and brevity, we only report analyses for the total SOI score. Scoring details can be found in Webster and Bryan (2007).

3. We tested the three-way interaction of EP × sociosexuality × gender, in each study as well. The same consistent pattern emerged suggesting that women who were high in both EP and sexual promiscuity reported the highest number of unprotected sexual partners. Although none of these individual three way interactions passed the standard threshold of statistical significance, their consistency and cumulative significance (p < 0.001) was striking.