Kunz · The Journal of social psychology 2025 · Preregistered naturalistic field experiments · n=240

Gender differences in receptivity to sexual invitations: two naturalistic replication studies.

Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study

Preregistered naturalistic field experiment comparing gender groups

PubMed 39661065 · doi:10.1080/00224545.2024.2439950 · record verified 2026-08-26

What was done

The authors performed two preregistered naturalistic replication studies of the classic Clark and Hatfield (1989) experiment with a combined sample of 240 participants. Study 1 was a direct replication evaluating reactions to propositions from opposite-gender strangers. Study 2 examined whether individual differences in sociosexuality accounted for gender differences in acceptance of casual sexual invitations.

What was found

In both studies, men accepted casual sexual invitations from opposite-gender strangers more readily than women. Contrary to the original 1989 findings, this gender difference was independent of proposition type. Differences in sociosexuality did not explain the gender disparity. No numerical rates, proportions, or test statistics are reported in the abstract.

Why it matters

This study demonstrates that the substantial gender difference in willingness to accept casual sexual invitations persists more than 40 years after initial documentation and is not explained by individual sociosexuality levels.

Limits

The abstract provides no raw counts, percentages, effect sizes, or confidence intervals. The total sample size across both experiments is modest (N = 240), and setting, population demographics, and confederate attributes are not reported in the abstract.