Psychological Development and Education ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 54-59.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.01.07

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The Influence of Different Operational Sex Ratios and Childhood Economic Status on Unmarried Males' Unrestricted Sociosexual Attitudes

WANG Yan1, WANG Sufang2, ZHANG Yina3, WANG Kai1   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433;
    2. Department of mathematics and Physics, Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023;
    3. Department of Social management and public policy, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433
  • Published:2021-01-22

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Abstract: On the basis of life history theory, this research aims to explore how sex ratios influence unmarried male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Two experiments are carried out to testify the hypothesis that young male's childhood economic background plays a moderating role between the perceived sex ratio in the environment and their unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Experiment 1 adopted series of facial photo pictures, which was consist of 6 male and 2 female facial photo pictures or 2 male and 6 female ones, as the priming material of different sex ratio.Results indicated that perceived sex ratio and childhood economic status showed a significant interactive effect on male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes:men with lower level of childhood economic status displayed a higher level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors when primed with low sex ratio than that primed with high sex ratio; male with higher level of childhood economic background exhibited a stable level of sexual attitudes under different priming conditions. In addition, childhood economic background produced a significant main effect on male's attitude to casual sexual behaviors. The perceived sex ratio did not have a significant main effect on men's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Experiment 2 adopted pseudo news reports, which depicted the situation of unbalanced sex ratio (more female or more male) in current China, as the priming materials. The result was similar with that in Experiment 1:Sex ratio and childhood economic status influenced male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes interactively:Men with poorer childhood economic status showed higher level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors when primed with low sex ratio in comparison with that of high sex ratio; men with a relatively richer childhood status showed a stable level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under both of the perceived unbalanced sex ratio in the background. In addition, childhood economic condition as well as the perceived sex ratio did not have a significant main effect on male's attitude to casual sexual behaviors. Conclusion:Overall,both of the two experiments support that sex ratio and childhood economic status produce an interactive influence on male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes:the unmarried male participants with poor childhood economic status increase the level of their acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under the condition of more females in comparison of that under the condition of more males, while the unmarried men with rich childhood economic status show a relatively stable level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under different priming conditions of sex ratio.

Key words: unrestricted sociosexual attitude, perceived sex ratio, childhood economic background, life history theory

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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