Discordant Attitudes, Desires, and Behaviors: Sexual Cognitive Dissonance in the Transition to Adulthood

We explore the empirical puzzle of how conflicting attitudes and desires evolve and exert competing behavioral influences, focusing on the socially contentious case of premarital sex among young women in the United States. Leveraging intensive panel data collected for up to 2.5 years among a large, population-based sample of unmarried women aged 18 to 22, we show that women's sexual attitudes and desires often follow distinct trajectories that eventually come into conflict because, on average, their desires are more socially malleable than their attitudes. When attitudes and desires disaccord, young women's sexual activity and contraceptive use generally reflect their desires more than their attitudes, especially as their desires intensify. Examining attitudes and desires together reveals new insights into how young adults experience and maneuver socially contentious decisions and further illuminates one reason why attitudes are imperfect predictors of behavior.