Attitudes toward Masturbation

105 male and 123 female college students were shown photographs of college women varying in attractiveness. Subjects were asked to identify the photograph they considered most attractive, the one they felt was of the woman most likely to be a virgin, and the one they felt was of the woman most likely to masturbate. All subjects selected as most attractive one of the photographs rated as high in attractiveness in prior research. When asked to select the picture of the individual most likely to be a virgin, subjects significantly more frequently selected a less attractive individual. This finding was also true when subjects selected the picture of the individual they believed most likely to masturbate. By the “beauty as good” model, these findings suggest that masturbation and virginity are viewed as negative sexual concepts by college students.