One-night stands increase one’s risk of being harassed
Does a one-night stand or romping without any commitment or emotional involvement sound interesting to you? If yes, beware, as it may just land you in trouble.
A recent study indicates that a person’s preference for casual sex may actually increase their risk of being harassed. Also, adolescents who’ve been sexually harassed are more strongly inclined to have casual sex than others.
The results might give the impression that it is the victim’s fault for being harassed, but the researchers said the findings were not intended to “blame the victim”.
“We’re just trying to understand the psychological mechanisms that underlie harassment,” said Mons Bendixen, associate professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.
It might be that a preference for casual sex results in more sexual solicitations in general, including undesirable ones.
The study also showed that adolescents who sexually harass others have had casual sex more often than those who do not harass others. They also fantasise more about casual sex and find it more acceptable to have sex without any commitment or emotional closeness.
The study included 1,326 heterosexual girls and boys with an average age of nearly 18 years. The psychologists only looked at non-physical forms of sexual harassment.
About 60% of the girls and boys in the survey reported that they had been sexually harassed in the last year. Around 30% of the girls and 45% of the boys admitted that they had sexually harassed someone one or more times.