Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors: Why two factors are better than one

Researchers have recently questioned the unidimensionality of the sociosexual orientation inventory [SOI; Simpson, J. A., & Gangestad, S. W. (1991). Individual differences in sociosexuality: evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 870-883], which measures willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relationships. Previous research, however, has not empirically examined this issue. Thus, 2787 undergraduates completed measures of the Sol, narcissism, and hostility. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a dual-factor model of the Sol, which accounted for both behavioral (Items 1-3) and attitudinal (Items 2,4-7) components, fit the data significantly better than a single-factor model. Although gender did not moderate the factor loadings, the sociosexual attitude-behavior correlation was stronger for women than for men. Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors were differentially related to narcissism and hostility. Researchers should consider scoring the SOI as separate attitudinal and behavioral components. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.