Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 1

RUNNING HEAD: Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory

The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory

Lars Penke

Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology,

Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square,

Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK

Tel.: +44 131 6511304; fax: +44 131 6503461; email address: [Link]@[Link]

Word count: 1,300

8 references, 1 table

To appear as:

Penke, L. (in press). The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory. In T. D.

Fisher, C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber & S. L. Davis (Eds.): Handbook of sexuality-

related measures (3rd Ed.). Taylor & Francis.

Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 2

Purpose:

The construct of sociosexuality or sociosexual orientation captures individual

differences in the tendency to have casual, uncommitted sexual relationships. The

term was introduced by Alfred Kinsey, who used it to describe the individual

differences in sexual permissiveness and promiscuity that he found in his ground-

breaking survey studies on sexual behavior (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948;

Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953). The amount of scientific research on

sociosexuality increased markedly when Simpson and Gangestad (1991) published

the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), a 7-item self-report questionnaire that

assesses sociosexual orientations along a single dimension from “restricted”

(indicating a tendency to have sex exclusively in emotionally close and committed

relationships) to “unrestricted” (indicating a tendency for sexual relationships with low

commitment and investment, often after short periods of acquaintance and with

changing partners). On average, men tend to be more unrestricted than women in

their sociosexual orientations, though there are also large individual differences

within both sexes (Schmitt, 2005). The SOI has been successfully applied in over 50

published studies from fields as diverse as social, personality, and evolutionary

psychology, sexuality research, gender studies, biological anthropology, and cross-

cultural research (Simpson, Wilson, & Winterheld, 2004).

Despite its popularity, the SOI has repeatedly been criticized (Asendorpf &

Penke, 2005; Penke & Asendorpf, 2008; Townsend, Kline, & Wasserman, 1995;

Voracek, 2005; Webster & Bryan, 2007). Conceptually, it has been doubted that a

single unitary dimension accurately reflects individual differences in sociosexuality.

Psychometrically, the SOI has received criticism for its sometimes low internal

consistency, multifactorial structure, skewed score distribution, open response items

that invite exaggerated responses, multiple alternative scoring methods that yield

incoherent results, and the formulation of one item (number 4) that makes the SOI

inappropriate for singles. The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) is a

Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 3

9-item self-report questionnaire that was developed to fix all these issues (Penke &

Asendorpf, 2008). It assesses three facets of sociosexuality: Past Behavior in terms

of number casual and changing sex partners, the explicit Attitude towards

uncommitted sex, and sexual Desire for people with whom no romantic relationship

exists.

Description:

The SOI-R consists of nine items, three for each of the three facets. All are

answered on rating scales. The first two items of the Behavior facet are taken from

the original SOI. They ask for the number of sexual partners in the last 12 months

and the lifetime number of “one night stands”. The third behavioural item assesses

the number of partners with whom one had sex despite a lack of long-term

relationship interest. Similarly, the first two Attitude items (asking for acceptance of

sex without love and for comfort with casual sex) are identical with two items from the

SOI, while a new item (asking for requiring the prospect of a long-term relationship

before consenting to sex) replaces an SOI attitude item with overly long and

complicated text. Finally, three new items assess the Desire facet, which was not

very well represented in the original SOI (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008). They ask for

the frequency with which one experiences spontaneous sexual fantasies or sexual

arousal when encountering people in everyday life with whom no committed romantic

relationship exists.

In a series of studies, the SOI-R items were chosen from a pool of 47 items

using exploratory factor analysis and item analysis (Penke, 2006). Confirmatory

factor analysis supported that they represent distinctive facets of sociosexuality with

low to moderate positive intercorrelations (.17 to .55). The correlation between the

Attitude and Behavior facet was significantly larger in women than in men, but

otherwise the factorial structure is invariant between the sexes, showing that the SOI-

R is equally appropriate for men and women (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008).
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 4

An analysis of 8,522 participants from an online study indicates that the SOI-

R is appropriate for individuals of any normal-range educational level, including

hetero-, bi- and homosexuals, singles and individuals of any relationship/marital

status, and at least the age range of 18 to 60 years (Penke, 2006; data partly

available on [Link]/soi-r/). However, some facets do not work very well

for sexually inexperienced and asexual individuals.

Response Mode and Timing:

All items of the SOI-R use Likert-type rating scales with the same number of

response alternatives, which makes the SOI-R appropriate for both paper-and-pencil

and online studies. Two alternative response scale formats exist for the SOI-R, one

with nine and the other with five response alternatives. Both show comparable

psychometric properties. The 9-point response scale was developed to allow for

combining the SOI-R with the original SOI (for details, see Penke & Asendorpf,

2008). However, for the majority of applications I recommend the 5-point response

scale, since most subjects (especially non-students) find it easier to discriminate

between five than between response alternatives. The SOI-R takes 1-2 minutes to

complete.

Scoring:

For items 1 to 3, values of 1 to 5 (5-point response scale) or values of 1 to 9

(9-point response scale) should be assigned to the responses. Thus, all nine items

have values from 1 to 5 (5-point scale) or 1 to 9 (9-point scale). Item 6 should be

reverse-keyed. Items 1 to 3 are aggregated (summed or averaged) to form the

Behavior facet, items 4 to 6 form the Attitude facet, and items 7 to 9 form the Desire

facet. Finally, all nine items can be aggregated to form a full scale score that

represents the global sociosexual orientation, similar to the full score of the original

SOI. Since most SOI-R scores (except Behavior) usually show marked sex
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 5

differences, results should be analysed separately for men and women, or

alternatively sex should be statistically controlled in all analyses. Descriptive statistics

for average facet and full scale scores for both response formats can be found in

Table 1.

Reliability:

As can be seen in Table 1, the SOI-R facet and total scores show good

internal consistencies for both response formats. Additionally, all scores except the

Desire facet show good 1-year retest stability, at least when the 9-point scale is used.

The lower retest stability of the Desire facet appears to relate to its transactions with

romantic relationship status, with women in particular showing more restrictive

desires when starting a new relationship and less restrictive desires when separating

(see Penke & Asendorpf, 2008).

Validity:

In two large studies, Penke and Asendorpf (2008) showed that the SOI-R full

scale score and the SOI showed very similar relationships to established correlates

of the sociosexuality, including sex differences, past and future relationship and

sexual behaviors, infidelity, mate choice preferences, sex drive, personality traits like

shyness and sensation seeking, and flirting behavior towards an attractive opposite-

sex stranger. Thus, there is strong evidence that the SOI-R offers the same

predictive validity that has been shown for the SOI (Simpson et al., 2004).

However, more detailed analyses revealed a highly distinctive pattern of

relationships for the three SOI-R facets, supporting their discriminant validity. For

example, sex differences were pronounced for Desire, mediocre for Attitude and non-

existent for Behavior (Table 1). Only Desire made unique contributions to the

prediction of past sexual and relationship behaviors, observer-rated attractiveness,

self-perceived mate value and female flirting behavior, while Attitude appeared
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 6

responsible for the effects of sociosexuality on mate preferences, assortative mating,

and a romantic partner’s flirtatiousness outside the relationship, and Desire had

strong independent effects on relationships with sex drive, relationship quality, and

male flirting behavior. Furthermore, Behavior and Desire, but not Attitude, predicted

the number of sexual partners and changes in romantic relationship status over the

next 12 month. Thus, Behavior, Attitude, and Desire apparently reflect rather unique

components of sociosexuality that should be studied separately in order to

understand the dynamics that underlie sociosexual orientations.

Other Information:

The SOI-R can freely be used for research purposes. The items of 10

different language versions (Chinese, Dutch, Icelandic, Italian, English, French,

German, Malaysian, Spanish, and Swedish) can be downloaded from

[Link]/soi-r/.
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 7

References

Asendorpf, J. B., & Penke, L. (2005). A mature evolutionary psychology demands

careful conclusions about sex differences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28,

275-276.

Penke, L. (2006). Development of the revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory

(SOI-R). Unpublished manuscript, Institute of Psychology, Humboldt

University of Berlin.

Penke, L., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2008). Beyond global sociosexual orientations: A more

differentiated look at sociosexuality and its effects on courtship and romantic

relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1113-1135.

Schmitt, D. P. (2005). Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study

of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating. Behavioral and Brain

Sciences, 28, 247–275.

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.

Simpson, J. A., Wilson, C. L., & Winterheld, H. A. (2004). Sociosexuality and

romantic relationships. In J. H. Harvey, A. Wenzel, & S. Sprecher (Eds.),

Handbook of sexuality in close relationships (pp. 87–111). Mahwah: Erlbaum.

Townsend, J. M., Kline, J., & Wasserman, T. H. (1995). Low-investment copulation:

Sex differences in motivations and emotional reactions. Ethology and

Sociobiology, 16, 25–51.

Voracek, M. (2005). Shortcomings of the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory: Can

psychometrics inform evolutionary psychology? Behavioral and Brain

Sciences, 28, 296–297.

Webster, G. D., & Bryan, A. (2007). Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors: Why two

factors are better than one. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 917-922.
 Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 8

Tables

Table 1. Descriptive statistics, reliabilities and effect sizes for sex differences for both

SOI-R response scale formats.

N Cronbach’s rtt M SD Cohen’s

(1 year) d

5-point scale

SOI-R Behavior male 2728 .85 - 2.19 1.10 .00

female 5821 .78 - 2.19 .95

SOI-R Attitude male 2706 .81 - 3.54 1.18 .45

female 5794 .81 - 3.01 1.20

SOI-R Desire male 2687 .82 - 3.45 1.01 .86

female 5748 .82 - 2.61 .96

SOI-R male 2647 .82 - 3.07 .82 .57

female 5632 .83 - 2.60 .80

9-point scale

SOI-R Behavior male 1026 .85 .83 2.76 1.83 .06

female 1682 .84 .86 2.65 1.73

SOI-R Attitude male 1026 .87 .73 6.42 2.33 .43

female 1682 .83 .79 5.41 2.37

SOI-R Desire male 1026 .86 .68 5.62 1.91 .86

female 1682 .85 .39 3.96 1.94

SOI-R male 1026 .83 .83 4.93 1.50 .61

female 1682 .83 .78 4.01 1.52

Note: rtt = test-retest correlation. The results for the 5-point response scale are from

an unpublished online study (Penke, 2006). The results for the 9-point response

scale are from Study 1 in Penke and Asendorpf (2008). More detailed results, split by

subsamples, can be found on [Link]/soi-r/.

Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 9

The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R)

Please respond honestly to all of the following questions. Your responses will be
treated confidentially and anonymously.

1. With how many different partners have you had sex within the past 12
months?

0 1 2 to 3 4 to 7 8 or more

0 1 2 3 4 5-6 7-9 10-19 20 or more

2. With how many different partners have you had sexual intercourse on one
and only one occasion?

0 1 2 to 3 4 to 7 8 or more

0 1 2 3 4 5-6 7-9 10-19 20 or more

3. With how many different partners have you had sexual intercourse without
having an interest in a long-term committed relationship with this person?

0 1 2 to 3 4 to 7 8 or more

0 1 2 3 4 5-6 7-9 10-19 20 or more

4. Sex without love is OK.

1 2 3 4 5
Totally disagree Totally agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Strongly disagree Strongly agree
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 10

5. I can imagine myself being comfortable and enjoying "casual" sex with
different partners.
1 2 3 4 5
Totally disagree Totally agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Strongly disagree Strongly agree

6. I do not want to have sex with a person until I am sure that we will have a
long-term, serious relationship.
1 2 3 4 5
Totally disagree Totally agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Strongly disagree Strongly agree

7. How often do you have fantasies about having sex with someone you are not
in a committed romantic relationship with?
1 2 3 4 5
Never Very seldom About once a About once a Nearly every
month week day

1 – never
2 – very seldom
3 – about once every two or three months
4 – about once a month
5 – about once every two weeks
6 – about once a week
7 – several times per week
8 – nearly every day
9 – at least once a day
Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory 11

8. How often do you experience sexual arousal when you are in contact with
someone you are not in a committed romantic relationship with?
1 2 3 4 5
Never Very seldom About once a About once a Nearly every
month week day

1 – never
2 – very seldom
3 – about once every two or three months
4 – about once a month
5 – about once every two weeks
6 – about once a week
7 – several times per week
8 – nearly every day
9 – at least once a day

9. In everyday life, how often do you have spontaneous fantasies about having
sex with someone you have just met?
1 2 3 4 5
Never Very seldom About once a About once a Nearly every
month week day

1 – never
2 – very seldom
3 – about once every two or three months
4 – about once a month
5 – about once every two weeks
6 – about once a week
7 – several times per week
8 – nearly every day
9 – at least once a day

Source. This scale was originally published in “Beyond global sociosexual

orientations: A more differentiated look at sociosexuality and its effects on courtship
and romantic relationships” by L. Penke and J. B. Asendorpf, 2008, Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1113-1135. Reprinted with permission.