College students’ motivations for “hooking up”: Similarities and differences in motives by gender and partner type.

Abstract

Using a sample of 348 single, primarily heterosexual university students with a recent (i.e., past 10-week) hook-up experience, we examined motivations for hooking up at both a global-and event level (i.e., motivations for hook ups in general and for the participants' most recent hook up). We also tested for differences in motivations for hooking up by gender and type of partner (i.e., stranger, acquaintance, friend, exromantic partner). Contrary to popular notions of hook ups as one-time sexual encounters void of attachment or emotional investment, results showed that participants were commonly motivated to hook up by the prospect of a romantic relationship. Further, the majority of motivations differed by gender; notably, women were more often motivated by the prospect of a relationship, whereas men were more often motivated by sexual experiences without obligation. Those motivated by the possibility of a romantic relationship were most likely to hook up with friends (vs. strangers, acquaintances, or ex-romantic partners), whereas hooking up due to alcohol or drug use was most likely to occur with an acquaintance compared with other partner types. Patterns of findings suggest that heterosexual men's and women's motivations to engage in hook ups differ considerably and that traditional gender role expectations and sexual double standards continue to be at play, which may place women at risk for poor emotional and relational outcomes following hook ups with men.

Social Motivations for College Hookups

“…A third study investigated how six motivations (relationship desire, lack of dating scene, sexual gratification, wanting to fit in, fun/excitement, and not enough time to pursue a relationship) grouped together to create four distinct classes of hookup motivations including Utilitarians (motivated by hookup enjoyment but use hookups as a catalyst into relationships due to a weak dating scene), Uninhibiteds (motivated by fun and sexual gratification), Unispireds (are not strongly motivated by anything), and Unreflectives (are neutral on all hookup motivations) (Uecker et al 2015 ). Weitbrecht and Whitton ( 2020 ) examined motivations for college hookups, finding the most common were physical pleasure, followed by feeling attractive, substance use, romantic relationship formation, lack of long term commitments, sexual experimentation, and gaining sexual experience. Less common motivations included loneliness, increasing social status, peer pressure, or because other people were doing it.…”

“…Women typically experience more negative consequences for engaging in hookups while men receive more positive reinforcement (Allison and Risman 2013 ; Hamilton and Armstrong 2009 ; Reiber and Garcia 2010 ). Past research has found women are more likely to endorse motives for sex and hookups such as love, commitment, initiating or solidifying an enduring relationship, and being compliant to their partner, compared to men (Bogle 2008 ; Hatfield et al 2010 ; Weitbrecht and Whitton 2020 ). Women who wish they had more opportunities to form long term relationships are also more likely to have hooked up in the past; although it is unclear if this desire to form relationships preceded or were a result of that hookup experience (Kuperberg and Padgett 2016 ).…”

“…In a mixed methods study, first year college women reported five groups of motivations including social rewards, mood and physical enhancement, conformity to social pressure, coping with negative emotions and external situations, personal qualities, and internal states (e.g., hormones) (Kenney et al 2013 ). Women are also more likely to report hooking up to feel attractive or desirable (Weitbrecht and Whitton 2020 ).…”

“…While past research has examined features of hookups predicted by specific social scripts associated with partying and hooking up while in college (Kuperberg and Padgett 2017 ; Kuperberg and Walker 2018 ), the degree to which sexual experimentation may motivate hookups (Weitbrecht and Whitton 2020 ), and social expectations of hookups among students (Wade 2017 ), the extent to which getting “the college experience” directly motivates hookup behavior has not been examined. Past research has instead examined motivations for casual sex, and individualistic psychological motivations for hookups, but research examining the physical, relationship, social contextual and substance related factors that may motivate the broader category of hookups” is very limited (Uecker et al 2015 ; Weitbrecht and Whitton 2020 ). This research has also tended to examine hookup or casual sex motivations as distinct, and only limited research has examined whether certain motivations may “cluster” together.…”

“…This research has also tended to examine hookup or casual sex motivations as distinct, and only limited research has examined whether certain motivations may “cluster” together. Finally, while past research has found a positive association between hooking up and having an older ideal age at marriage, and distinct patterns in hookups and desire for more hookup opportunities by race, age and sexual orientation (Allison and Risman 2017 ; Kuperberg and Padgett 2016 ), research has not examined whether specific hookup motivations differ by race, age, religiosity, ideal age at marriage, or other social contextual measures of marriage such as the marital status of parents or peers or the education (and therefore educational experiences) of parents, with past demographic comparisons of motivations only examining gender or partner type differences (Weitbrecht and Whitton 2020 ). We add to this literature by using an originally collected pilot dataset to examine social motivations for hookups, and differences by race, age, gender, religiosity, mother’s college education, ideal age at marriage, and marital status of parents and peers.…”