Jun 04, 2013 09:11 AM EDT
A new Cornell University study conducted by developmental psychologists says that college going-females have the tendency to criticize their promiscuous female peers and consider them unsuitable for friendships.
For this study, promiscuity was defined as getting involved with more than 20 sexual partners by the time one reaches his/her early 20's.
The study also revealed that women prefer less sexually active women as friends even though they support liberal views about casual sex.
Psychologists also found out that men do not have any preferences while choosing their male friends. They preferred both sexually permissive potential friends as well as non-permissive ones. The only trend observed was that permissive males preferred less permissive males as friends as they pose a lesser threat as potential competitors for girlfriends.
Lead author Zhana Vrangalova, a Cornell graduate student in the field of human development said that even though people have become broad-minded about casual sex, 'slutty' women are still looked down upon while 'studly' men are praised.
"For sexually permissive women, they are ostracized for being 'easy,' whereas men with a high number of sexual partners are viewed with a sense of accomplishment," Vrangalova said. "What surprised us in this study is how unaccepting promiscuous women were of other promiscuous women when it came to friendships - these are the very people one would think they could turn to for support."
Vrangalova also said that prior research shows that men considered these promiscuous women as unsuitable for long-term romantic relationships, isolating them in social circles game.
The study asked 751 students about their past sexual experiences and their opinion of casual dating in a questionnaire. Then they were provided with a near-identical bio data of another male or female peer. The only difference was the number of sexual partners they had (2 or 20). Participants were then asked to rate these peers on a scale of 10 based on a few friendship attributes like warmth, competence, morality, emotional stability and overall likability.
Researchers noticed that despite their own sexual experiences women rated sexually permissive women more negatively and only gave them positive ratings on their characteristic of outgoingness.
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Provided by University of Waterloo