One hundred and one females participated on the world wide web in exchange for a modest cash payment. The mean age of participants was 26.9 (range = 18–45). Participant ethnicity was as follows: 12 Asian, 6 African-American, 30 Caucasian, 3 Hispanic, 43 Indian, 3 Native-American, and 4 unspecified. Participation was restricted to self-reported heterosexual and bisexual individuals.
Participants followed a web link to gain access to the experiment. A welcome screen indicated that the experiment was about self-presentation on the internet and would consist of reading a scenario about joining a dating website, followed by completion of a brief questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned to read either an "interested in casual sex" scenario (coded 1) or a control scenario (coded 0). The scenarios were as follows (the casual sex condition included the parenthetical information; the control condition did not):
Imagine that you (are interested in casual sex with a guy. You) decide to join a dating website because you have heard that it is a good way to find a guy (for this type of relationship). The website allows you to post one picture, and you decide to take a picture of yourself using your cell phone.
The questionnaire that followed contained items asking participants how they would pose for the picture. The item most relevant to our hypothesis was "In the picture, what color shirt would you wear?" with four response options: Red (the color of central interest), black (a highly fashionable color for adults), blue (adults' most preferred color in general), or green (the opposite of red in many well-established color models). Participants selected one of the four colors. The other items, which preceded the color item, were: "In the picture, would you wear your hair down or up?" and "In the picture, would you wear a necklace?" Given that some participants might have difficulty imagining themselves seeking a casual sexual relationship, we included items assessing how easy the scenario was for the participant to imagine, and if she thought she would ever find herself in the situation described in the scenario. Participants responded to both items on a 1 (not at all) to 9 (extremely) scale. Upon completing the questionnaire, participants were informed that the experiment was over.
Experiment 3
Method
Study 3, like Study 2, focused on women's actual behavior on a dating website. Here we sought to conceptually replicate Study 2 using a different operationalization of interest in casual sex – type of dating website.
We randomly selected 500 female profiles from a website overtly dedicated to facilitating sexual relationships (coded 1); this website emphasizes casual sexual encounters, one night stands, and swinging. In contrast, we also selected 500 female profiles from a website overtly dedicated to facilitating serious, long-term relationships (coded 0); this website emphasizes love, marriage, and commitment. Inclusion criteria were comparable to Study 2, with one exception. Both websites in the current study required entering a zip code to browse profiles, which were then sorted in order of proximity to the zip code selected. We selected the New York City zip code, 10001, because of the city's ethnically diverse population. The color coding was identical to Study 2 and focused on the same colors. Inter-coder agreement was excellent; a third coder resolved discrepancies.
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