A more accepting attitude toward sugar relationships was found to be associated with more unrestricted sociosexuality, preference to engage in playful love relationships and more self-focused sexual motivation

It Takes Two to Tango: Development, Validation, and Personality Correlates of the Acceptance of Sugar Relationships in Older Men and Women Scale (ASR-OMWS). András Láng et al. Frontiers in Psychology 12. Apr 2021. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.592138

Abstract: Sugar relationships can be considered contemporary forms of transactional sex, that is, offering sexual services for material resources or other benefits. Considering the common age differences in these relationships, sugar relationships might be of relevance for older adults as well on the mating market. As a sequel to Birkás et al. (2020) , in the present study, an attitude scale was developed to assess older women’s and men’s acceptance of sugar relationships. We also explored whether the acceptance of sugar relationships was associated with love styles, sociosexual orientation, sexual motivation, and certain socially aversive personality traits. In two online studies with a total number of 836 participants ( N = 277 women and 559 men), the results showed that the Acceptance of Sugar Relationships in Older Men and Women Scale (ASR-OMWS) proved to be a reliable and conceptually valid measure of older individuals’ attitude toward sugar relationships. A more accepting attitude toward sugar relationships was found to be associated with more unrestricted sociosexuality, preference to engage in playful love relationships and more self-focused sexual motivation (study 1; N = 481, 167 women and 314 men), and with more pronounced Dark Triad and borderline traits (study 2; N = 355, 110 women and 245 men). Our findings are discussed in an evolutionary framework.

Discussion

The present study evaluated a self-report measure regarding the acceptance of sugar relationships in older adults. Compared with the mating strategies of young adults, there is much less known about the partner preferences of individuals in older ages. Accordingly, this is the first empirical test of the correlates of attitudes toward sugar relationships in a predominantly evolutionary approach in a sample beyond young adulthood.

Moreover, the ASR-OMWS was used to test the association between personality characteristics, relational attitudes, and attitudes toward sugar relationships in older adults. More accepting individuals can be characterized not only by a more instrumental motivation toward sex but also by respecting the relational aspect of the sugar relationship.

This might suggest that intimacy could also be a product or service that is desired and valued by older individuals (Alterovitz and Mendelsohn, 2011; Fales et al., 2016). Furthermore, older adults scoring high on ASR-OMWS preferred relationships offering fun and taking advantage of partners and were less interested in romantic and emotional love (see section “Results” for love styles). More unrestricted sociosexuality was also positively associated with the acceptance of sugar relationships showing, that despite of their older age and declining mate value, individuals willing to take part in a sugar relationship are sexually more active. These love and sexual motives might play a key role in shaping the mating strategies of older adults. Elevated sexual impulses increase the focus on the physical characteristics of the potential partner and put more value on these signs. Since older adults possess rather material resources than physical appeal, sugar relationships might represent an undertakable and accessible form of affair (e.g., Jonason and Kavanagh, 2010; Allen and Desille, 2017; Træen et al., 2019).

On the personality level, acceptance of sugar relationships was positively associated with socially aversive personality traits (i.e., Dark Triad) and BPO. This suggests that to some extent, partner preferences of older adults are affected by these personality traits. As pointed out earlier, personality affects both advertised and expected partner qualities. Thus, it forms the nature of the desirable relationship. Connecting our results with previous findings regarding the mating strategies of the Dark Triad and BPO, sugar relationship appears to be endorsed by individuals preferring short-term sexual relationships with less commitment and intimacy (e.g., Jonason et al., 2009, 2019; Lavner et al., 2015; Muñoz Centifanti et al., 2016; Birkás et al., 2018).

The question may arise as to why these psychologies are so similar (i.e., openness to offer sexual companionship in exchange for resources or openness to offer resources in exchange for sex). The provision of resources by males to the sexual partner (not specifically in exchange for sex) is an adaptive behavior that plays an important role in the functioning of long-term, emotionally committed relationships, especially in the care of offspring (Buss and Schmitt, 1993, 2019; Conroy Beam and Buss, 2019; Luberti et al., 2020). Therefore, the sensitivity of females to resources in the mating context is also an adaptive trait that may have contributed to their reproductive success in the past. However, direct sexual transaction, free from commitment and mutual reproductive goals, is part of a short-term-focused mating strategy (Anderson and Klofstad, 2012; Whyte et al., 2019; Buss et al., 2020). The psychological characteristics of this strategy, which exploits herself/himself and others, are very similar from both the supply and demand sides: to get as many benefits as possible in the shortest possible time, without considering the possible long-term consequences.

Our study has some limitations as well. Perhaps, the sample is biased due to the possibility that individuals with an increased interest in sex-related topics can be overrepresented in our sample, leading to an increased openness toward sugar relationships. Moreover, the majority of the participants had no direct experience with sugar relationships, and accordingly, their attitudes might be more biased by their personality or impulses. Still, our findings are in line with the prequel to this study (Birkás et al., 2020) showing that older adults who are accepting toward sugar relationships have similar motives and personality traits as young adults who are willing to engage in transactional sex. The most prominent difference between the results obtained from the two studies (i.e., Birkás et al., 2020 and the current study) was that acceptance of sugar relationships was weakly but significantly positively associated with relational motives for having sex in the current study with older sample. Thus, a more direct comparison of age-groups and/or inclusion of behavioral measures might be a fruitful direction of future research.