Men Oversexualize Women Following Brief Interactions

Researchers have found that after a five-minute conversation with a stranger of the opposite gender, men were more likely to interpret ambiguous or friendly behavior as indicating sexual interest.

Men rate themselves and the women they just interacted with higher on sexual traits, such as flirtatiousness, than women rate men. Maurice J. Levesque, an associate professor of Psychology at Elon University and colleagues find that "men generally think in more sexual terms than women."

Within their brief conversation, partners introduced themselves and talked about college experiences. There was no significant difference in how men, compared to women, rated their conversation partners on agreeableness or extroversion. Nor was there evidence of sexual chemistry, as partners did not share a tendency to find each other attractive or desire a future interaction.

If women found their male partner as more physically attractive and saw him as more agreeable, they rated the partner higher on sexual traits. On the other hand, although men's ratings of women were also associated with physical attractiveness, they were nevertheless unrelated to whether he saw her as agreeable or felt the conversation was enjoyable.