Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses

Two online studies evaluated the misperception of sexual and romantic interests in established relationships and tested four hypotheses: a simple sex-difference hypothesis, a projection hypothesis, a mate value hypothesis, and a mediation hypothesis. Two hundred thirty-eight (Study 1) and 198 (Study 2) members of young adult opposite-sex friendship dyads indicated their sexual and romantic interests in their friend and their perceptions of their friend’s sexual and romantic interests in them. Participants projected their own levels of sexual and romantic interests onto their opposite-sex friend, mediating the following effects: males overperceived and females underperceived their friends’ sexual (but not romantic) interest and participants of both sexes misperceived the sexual (but not romantic) interest of friends depending on the friends’ mate value. Previous research has documented links between the misperceptions of sexual and romantic interests, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. In one study, misperception of sexual interest was the strongest predictor of number of sexual assaults, including rape (Abbey, McAuslan, & Ross, 1998), and other studies have shown that misperception of sexual interest may contribute to sexual harassment (Johnson, Stockdale, & Saal, 1991; Sigal, Gibbs, Adams, & Derfler, 1988). Misunderstandings regarding sexual and romantic interests are not limited to dating relationships but can also occur in the context of oppositesex friendships (O’Meara, 1989) and could potentially result in dissolution of such friendships. Approximately 15% of sexual assaults occur within opposite-sex friendships (Abbey et al., 1998). Therefore, greater understanding of misperception of sexual and romantic interests is a valuable topic for empirical research and theoretical understanding. This article presents two studies that extend previous research in three ways. First, in these studies, we evaluated the misperception of sexual interest in long-standing relationship dyads, that is, opposite-sex friendships. Second, we examined misperception of romantic interest. Finally, we evaluated the mediation of sex differences in misperception of sexual and romantic interests by perceiver level of sexual and romantic interests, respectively. This article is organized as follows. After a brief literature review, we present two conclusions: (a) to demonstrate the misperception of sexual interest, researchers should compare perceived level of sexual interest with actual level of sexual interest and (b) previous researchers have focused on men’s, and largely ignored women’s, misperception of sexual interest. We then provide a rationale for differentiating sexual and romantic interests. Next, we identify opposite-sex friendships as useful subjects B P E R E 0 1 6 3 Journal Name Manuscript No. Dispatch: 22.6.07 Journal: PERE CE: J. Rajalakshmi Author Received: No. of pages: 19 ME: Senthil Bryan L. Koenig, Department of Psychology, College of William and Mary; Lee A. Kirkpatrick, Department of Psychology, College of William and Mary; Timothy Ketelaar, Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University. Bryan L. Koenig is now at the Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of this manuscript for their helpful comments. The material presented here is a part of the first author’s master’s thesis under the supervision of the second author. Correspondence should be addressed to Bryan L. Koenig, New Mexico State University, Department of Psychology, Las Cruces, NM 88003, e-mail: [email protected]. Personal Relationships, 14 (2007), 411–429. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright 2007 IARR. 1350-4126=07 411 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44