Sexual regret in US and Norway: Effects of culture and individual differences in religiosity and mating strategy

Sexual regret in US and Norway: Effects of culture and individual differences in religiosity and mating strategy. By Mons Bendixen et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, 1 October 2017, Pages 246–251, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917303148

Highlights

•    Men were significantly less likely to regret having had casual sex than women were.
•    Men were significantly more likely to regret passing up casual sex than women were.
•    More religious regretted having had casual sex more and passing up casual sex less.
•    Unrestricted regretted having had casual sex less and passing up casual sex more.
•    Overall regret and patterns of sex differences not different between nations

Abstract: Sexual regret was investigated across two disparate cultures: Norway (N = 853), a highly secular and sexually liberal culture, and the United States (N = 466), a more religious and more sexually conservative culture. Sex differences, individual differences in preferred mating strategy, religiosity, and cultural differences in sexual regret were analyzed. Men were significantly less likely to regret having had casual sex than women and were significantly more likely to regret passing up casual sexual opportunities than women. Participants who were more religious regretted having had casual sex more and regretted passing up casual sex less. Sexually unrestricted participants were less likely to regret having had casual sex and were more likely to regret passing up casual sex. Finally, North Americans and Norwegians did not differ significantly in overall amount of sexual regret nor in patterns of sex differences in sexual regret. Discussion focuses the robustness of sex differences across cultures, the importance of explaining individual differences within cultures, and on future directions for cross-cultural research.

Keywords: Sexual regret; Religiosity; Sociosexual orientation; Culture; Sexual strategies; One night stands