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Costs of Short-Term Mating for Women

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Casual sex; One-night stand; Booty-calls; Hook-ups; Friends with benefits

Definition

The term “short-term mating” typically describes a sexual relationship that is casual in nature, mostly focused on sexual pleasure, lacking commitment or longevity, and characterized by little emotional connection (Jonason 2013; Jonason and Balzarini 2016). The term “casual sex” is used as a catchall to refer to all kinds of short-term relationships, but these relationships can encompass one-night stands, booty-call relationships, hook-ups, and friends with benefits. While all of these relationships have their unique features, they share a common theme of creating a context where individuals have sex without any formal commitment.

Introduction

Casual sex is widespread in nature, with 38% of “adults” (Twenge et al. 2015) and 75% of college students (Jonason and Balzarini 2016) engaging in some form of casual sex relationship. Historically, casual sex has been viewed as a pathology, but this...

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Correspondence to Monica A. Koehn .

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© 2018 Crown

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Koehn, M.A., Jonason, P.K. (2018). Costs of Short-Term Mating for Women. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3662-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3662-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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