The Relationship Between Men’s Sociosexuality, Drinking Intake, and Blackouts

Abstract

Background: Sociosexuality—attitudes, behaviors, and desires related to casual sex—partly predicts drinking behavior in both men and women because drinking is thought to facilitate interactions that lead to casual sex. It follows that sociosexuality would predict drinking intake (e.g., quantity consumed)—but perhaps not drinking consequences (e.g., blacking out)—on the premise that drinking large quantities with high frequency (but not to such high degrees/levels of intoxication that negative consequences occur) would facilitate casual sex. Objectives: This set of studies evaluated whether baseline measures of sociosexuality predict drinking intake (i.e., frequency, quantity, and binge drinking) but not experiencing blacking out at follow-up in two samples (Study 1, N = 172; Study 2, N = 1,038) of college-aged men. Results: As predicted, men’s sociosexuality prospectively predicted drinking frequency, quantity, and binge drinking. Contrary to our predictions, men’s sociosexuality also predicted blacking out. Conclusions: College men’s drinking interventions should be tailored to high-risk groups and consider individual differences like sociosexuality.

Keywords:

• Sociosexuality
• alcohol
• alcohol consequences
• binge drinking
• college students

Declaration of interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

Upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), R01AA019478 (PI: Maria Testa). The preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by contract L30AA027013 (PI: Liana S.E. Hone) and grant T32AA025877 (PI: Robert Cook) from NIAAA.