A triangulation study of young Women’s motivations for sending nudes to men

Authors

Olivia R. Checkalski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Sarah Gervais, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Kathryn Holland, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

11-14-2022

Citation

Published in Computers in Human Behavior 140 (2023) 107561

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107561

Comments

Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. Used by permission.

Abstract

Women frequently send sexualized nude images to men (i.e., nudes), but women’s motivations for sending nudes are unclear because there are methodological limitations in the ways that cyber sexual activity has been defined and measured. To address these gaps in the literature, we employed a mixed method triangulation design to assess young women’s motivations for sending nudes to men, and how motivations compare when measured qualitatively and quantitatively. Across our qualitative and quantitative data, we found that women endorsed a plethora of motivations for sending nudes to men—far more than any one approach captured. The open-ended responses revealed positive sexual motives otherwise missing from the quantitative scales, which tended to overrepresent negative motivations. We also identified several critical discrepancies between endorsement of similar motivations in the qualitative versus quantitative responses, especially when it came to the idea of sending nudes for fun. Based on these findings, we suggest future researchers consider using more specific, and less stigmatizing language when assessing women’s motivations for sending nudes.