“It's Like Being in Church and Being on a Field Trip:” The Date Versus Party Situation in College Students' Accounts of Hooking Up

Abstract

This article examines the importance of setting as a factor shaping college students' dating and sexual behavior using a Goffmanian framework to explore how U.S. students interpret a vignette describing a casual heterosexual encounter at a party followed by a sexless dinner date. Rather than simply follow generalized cultural scripts, students indicate that college heterosexual encounters are guided by standardized patterns of behaviors based on the distinct settings and roles associated with each situation. Students view sexual behavior as appropriate to being a partygoer but unsuitable to being on a date. As such, hooking up with a stranger at a party can be more appropriate than having sex with the same person on a first date.