چکیده (انگلیسی):

What is the reason for gender discrepancy in reporting lifetime sex partners (SPs) when people are asked for the number of SPs they have had? Based on the idea of the sexual double standard, men might over-report while women might under-report the number of SPs. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this gender discrepancy could be explained by the sexual double standard or not. Late adolescents were asked to report the number of their lifetime SPs and to assess how they perceive sexual behaviors of an imaginary peer who reports a large number of SPs. Data were collected through a one-to-one interview sessions (over 90% of the sample). The lifetime number of SPs for men was almost 6 times higher than that for women. Men showed more envious attitudes and assessed the peer’s report as less factual when the peer man had more SPs. Women were not willing to accept the man as their prospective partner if he had many SPs. Also, the sexual behavior of the peer woman with many SPs was deemed undesirable by women. The findings imply that men might inflate their reports of the number of lifetime SPs, supporting the old sexual double standard. The findings also imply that women might under-report their lifetime SPs, and seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about the topic of the sexual double standard.