Who Pays for Dinner with the Opposite Sex? Men Want to Pay, but Women Don't

The current study examined three predictions: 1) overall, men will have a higher willingness to pay than women; 2) when the hypothetical partner is of the opposite sex, men will have a higher willingness to pay than women; 3) when the hypothetical partner is of the same sex, no difference in willingness to pay will be observed between men and women. A between-subjects online scenario experiment was conducted in which participants decided what percentage of the dinner bill they would pay when having dinner with a hypothetical opposite-sex or same-sex partner. All three predictions were confirmed. Furthermore, in the opposite-sex partner condition (relative to the same-sex partner condition), willingness to pay increased among men but decreased among women. Specifically, men in the opposite-sex partner condition preferred to pay more than 50%, but women in the opposite-sex partner condition preferred to pay less than 50%. These results deepen the understanding of sex differences by clarifying that willingness to pay varies depending on the sex of the partner.