Research finds caution with online dating, but not face to face.
Posted by Patrick Woolmer on Fri 7th September 2007 at 03:49 AM, Filed in General Dating
A recent Houston-based study found that Women seeking suitors on the Web take sexual risks once they meet. But women who date online are very likely to take precautions to protect their personal safety when first meeting a man face-to-face
The ladies surveyed went to great lengths to screen online acquaintances before meeting them, nearly a third reported having sex on the first date and three-quarters of those said they did not use condoms, according to the study by The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Those behaviors reflect a “virtual intimacy” the women developed with men online before meeting them in person, said the study’s author, Paige Padgett.
“They may not think of it as being risky sex,” said Padgett, a research associate who specializes in epidemiology and sex research. “They don’t see it as a one-night stand, even though it might turn out that way, because they really feel they have a relationship with this man.”
Padgett surveyed 740 women over 5 months who posted personal ads on seven dating Web sites. Some were looking for love, others for sex, she said. 568 of the women met face-to-face with at least one man with whom their first contact was online.
She found:
• 30 percent of the women reported having sex during that date
• and 77 percent of those did not use condoms.
Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the apparent contradiction doesn’t surprise him. People behave differently in the heat of the moment from when they plan ahead, he said.
“When somebody’s sitting by their laptop at home and writing these sterile e-mails to each other, there’s no sense of emotionality,” he said. “But when they meet and they get aroused, life changes.”
Online dating, Padgett said, enables women to ignore men who don’t make them feel safe or fit their standards. Couples who meet online also can negotiate terms, such as condom use, or exchange sexual history that may be uncomfortable to discuss in person, Padgett said.
“You can disclose all this personal information without having the fear of rejection with the person right in front of you.”
For that reason, she said, intimacy may be accelerated in relationships that begin online. By the time two people meet face-to-face, they may feel as though they’ve been seeing each other for a while.
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