Exclusive
SEX SNUB
Brits snub casual romps with young adults half as likely to get picked up as in the 1980s
The proportion of women who agreed to a date plummeted from 50 per cent in the ’80s to 13 per cent
FLINGS are going out of fashion — with today’s young adults half as likely to get picked up as they were in the 1980s.
Researchers tried to chat up 96 people in their 20s on a university campus during a day in a repeat of a 1989 experiment.
1
Subjects were asked if they would go on a date, take someone back to their place or have sex.
The proportion of women who agreed to a date plummeted from 50 per cent in the ’80s to 13 per cent, while men’s rate fell from 56 to 25 per cent.
Those willing to go home with someone was down from six per cent to zero for women, and from 63 to 25 per cent for men.
Just like the first time, no women agreed on the spot to sex, while the percentage of eager men shrunk from 71 to 31.
Read More on Health
Experts from Austria’s Innsbruck University put the drop-off over 35 years down to a heightened awareness of “stranger danger”.
Study author Sascha Kunz told the Journal of Social Psychology: “It seems the receptivity to casual sexual offers from both men and women has dramatically decreased over time. Most of our participants, women and men alike, did not accept any of the three offers.
“We find the low acceptance rate to be entirely understandable given that approaching a stranger in public to make a sudden, explicit sexual proposal clearly violates social norms.”
She went on: “While most men do not intend harm, the potential risks make caution necessary.
Most read in Health
“Women may reject casual sex offers not due to inherently lower sex drives but because they see these propositions as less desirable.”
YouGov polls show that online dating is now one of the most common ways for Brits to find a partner, along with meeting someone through work.
Former escort reveals surprising signs your partner is cheating during lockdown – admitting men will ‘always find a way’
Topics