Double Standards And Changing Standards

In contemporary society it is widely believed that men are socially rewarded for sexual activity, whereas women are derogated for sexual activity. To determine whether a sexual double standard exists, both undergraduate (n = 144) and Internet (n = 8,080) participants evaluated experimental targets who were described as either male or female and as having a variable number of sexual partners. Targets were more likely to be derogated as the number of sexual partners increased, and this effect held for both male and female targets. These results suggest that, although people do evaluate others as a function of sexual activity, people do not necessarily hold men and women to different sexual standards.

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The confirmation bias (Gilovich, 1993; Snyder, 1981), may also help to explain why people believe that the sexual double standard exists. Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking in which one tends to notice evidence that confirms one’s beliefs and to ignore or undervalue evidence that contradicts one’s beliefs. Confirmation biases may lead people to notice cases that are consistent with the double standard (e.g., a woman being referred to as a “slut”) and fail to notice cases inconsistent with the double standard (e.g., a man being referred to as a “whore”). Because the vast majority of people believe that a sexual double standard exists (Marks, 2002; Milhausen & Herold, 1999, 2001), it is likely that people will process social information that seemingly corroborates the sexual double standard and will ignore information that refutes it.

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In short, although men and women may have an equal probability of being derogated (or rewarded) for having had many sexual partners, people may tend to notice only the instances in which women are derogated and men are rewarded. Attending to cases that are consistent with the double standard while ignoring cases inconsistent with it may create the illusion that the sexual double standard is more pervasive than it really is.


Marks, Michael J., and R. Chris Fraley. "The sexual double standard: Fact or fiction?." Sex Roles 52.3-4 (2005): 175-186.

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But what about when actual number of sexual partners are assessed? Are men actually having sex with large numbers of women whereas women are more selective? Alexander and Fisher (2003) recently examined gender differences in reported number of sexual partners more closely. To facilitate more truthful responses, they used a "bogus pipeline" technique, which falsely convinces participants that a sophisticated electronic apparatus can detect their true feelings. Thus, some participants were connected to a (nonfunctional) polygraph machine and informed that untruthful responses would be detected. As expected, participants who were not attached to the polygraph displayed typical gender differences — that is, men reported more sexual partners than women did.

The polygraph (bogus pipeline) condition, however, yieldedfar different results. When participants believed that their true sexual history could be revealed by the polygraph, gender differences in reported sexual partners disappeared.


Alexander, Michele G., and Terri D. Fisher. "Truth and consequences: Using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self‐reported sexuality." Journal of sex research 40.1 (2003): 27-35.

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Remember this when some loudmouth at the bar declares that "patriarchy is universal, and always has been!" It’s not, and it hasn’t. But rather than feel threatened, we’d recommend that our male readers ponder this: Societies in which women have lots of autonomy and authority tend to be decidedly male-friendly, relaxed, tolerant, and plenty sexy. Got that, fellas? If you’re unhappy at the amount of sexual opportunity in your life, don’t blame the women. Instead, make sure they have equal access to power, wealth, and status. Then watch what happens.


Ryan, Christopher, and Cacilda Jethá. Sex at dawn: The prehistoric origins of modern sexuality. HarperCollins, 2010.

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The same false teachers who try to dim the luster of conjugal faith and purity do not scruple to do away with the honorable and trusting obedience which the woman owes to the man. Many of them even go further and assert that such a subjection of one party to the other is unworthy of human dignity, that the rights of husband and wife are equal; wherefore, they boldly proclaim the emancipation of women has been or ought to be effected. This emancipation in their ideas must be threefold, in the ruling of the domestic society, in the administration of family affairs and in the rearing of the children. It must be social, economic, physiological: – physiological, that is to say, the woman is to be freed at her own good pleasure from the burdensome duties properly belonging to a wife as companion and mother (We have already said that this is not an emancipation but a crime); social, inasmuch as the wife being freed from the cares of children and family, should, to the neglect of these, be able to follow her own bent and devote herself to business and even public affairs; finally economic, whereby the woman even without the knowledge and against the wish of her husband may be at liberty to conduct and administer her own affairs, giving her attention chiefly to these rather than to children, husband and family.

This, however, is not the true emancipation of woman, nor that rational and exalted liberty which belongs to the noble office of a Christian woman and wife; it is rather the debasing of the womanly character and the dignity of motherhood, and indeed of the whole family, as a result of which the husband suffers the loss of his wife, the children of their mother, and the home and the whole family of an ever watchful guardian. More than this, this false liberty and unnatural equality with the husband is to the detriment of the woman herself, for if the woman descends from her truly regal throne to which she has been raised within the walls of the home by means of the Gospel, she will soon be reduced to the old state of slavery (if not in appearance, certainly in reality) and become as amongst the pagans the mere instrument of man.

– Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii