Sexual ethics

Contemporary studies demonstrate that non-marital sex (heterosexual penetrative sex) is on the rise and opinions about it have become more liberal, as shown by The Pew Research Center and a study published in 2014 by ChristianMingle and JDate. Pew research also revealed that there are 5.3 million Jews in the United States and one out of five ethnic and cultural Jews report having no religion (Lugo 23). The combination of these two societal trends has caused new issues to emerge in the age-old debate within educational, civic and religious communities about non-marital sex. The conflict over non-marital sex can be traced through the writing of contemporary cultural and feminist critics and parallel trends in rabbinic thought. Socio-sexual change (here explored through the rise in non-marital sex) does directly affect Jewish religiosity and identity.

Over 90% of men and women marry, but as many as 50% of married men and women have affairs. Thus, in a self-report study of ideal mating arrangements, in which costs associated with infidelity are eliminated, it was hypothesized that men and women would prefer a mating arrangement of monogamy with the option of casual, extra-pair sex. Unexpectedly, men and women (N = 463) overwhelmingly preferred strictly monogamous mating arrangements when forced to select one such ideal arrangement. A hypothesized sex difference did emerge, however, with men more than women rating as more interesting those arrangements that included casual sex or partner variety. Discussion addresses several evolutionarily plausible accounts for the current results and integrates the current results with existing theories about sex differences and similarities in mating psychology and behavior.

This study examined sex differences in jealousy over sexual and emotional infidelity. I was interested in replicating Buss et al. (1992, 1999), testing the double-shot hypothesis, and investigating a potential trigger for within-sex differences in jealousy. It was hypothesized that males will be more distressed by sexual infidelity and females will be more distressed by emotional infidelity and that relationship experience will trigger males and females to respond in predictable ways. This study replicated Buss et al. (1992/1999) original findings, found no support for the double shot hypothesis, and found that relationship experience plays a partial role in the impact it has on predicting upset over infidelity, with males reliably becoming more distressed over sexual infidelity and females being more variable in there responses to jealousy.