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Sociosexual Orientation

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Promiscuity; Sexual permissiveness; Sociosexuality

Definition

Sociosexual orientation reflects individual differences in sexual permissiveness or engagement in uncommitted sexual relations.

Introduction

Sociosexual orientation – or sociosexuality – reflects individual differences in sexual permissiveness or willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations (Simpson and Gangestad 1991). Although sociosexuality is considered a trait measure that is continuous, people are often described categorically as having restricted (low) or unrestricted (high) sociosexual orientations. People with unrestricted sociosexual orientations may believe that sex without love or emotional ties is acceptable, whereas people with restrictedsociosexual orientations believe that love, commitment, and emotional closeness are prerequisites for sexual activity. More sexually unrestricted people tend to have greater numbers of sexual partners, casual sexual encounters (hook-ups, one-night-stands),...

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Correspondence to Val Wongsomboon .

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

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Wongsomboon, V., Mahar, E.A., Webster, G.D. (2018). Sociosexual Orientation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1581-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1581-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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