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A new study reveals that women don't like their promiscuous counterparts, and view them as more unsuitable for friendship than less sexually experienced women.

The study found that women's preference for less promiscuous women as friends held true even when they personally reported having liberal attitudes about casual sex or a high number of lifetime lovers.

 However, men are less uniform about their preferences when asked to rate the sexually permissive friend, the non-permissive friend or showing no preference for either. 

Interestingly, promiscuous men favored less sexually experienced men only if they viewed other promiscuous men as a potential threat to their relationships.

Lead researcher Zhana Vrangalova said that the latest findings suggest that women still face a double standard that shames "slutty" women and celebrates "studly men". Researchers said this may mean that promiscuous women are at greater risk for social isolation and poor psychological and physical health.

"Sexually permissive women are ostracized for being 'easy,' whereas men with a high number of sexual partners are viewed with a sense of accomplishment," Vrangalova said.

"What surprised us in this study is how unaccepting promiscuous women were of other promiscuous women when it came to friendships - these are the very people one would think they could turn to for support," she added.

Vrangalova said that the findings show that promiscuous women are even more socially isolated because men find them to be unsuitable for long-term romantic relationships.

The study included 751 college students.  Participants provided information about their sexual experience and views on casual sex.  Then they read a near-identical story about a male or female peer.  The only difference between the two stories was the character's number of lifetime sexual partners (two of 20).

Regardless of their own promiscuity, women viewed sexually permissive women more negatively on nine of 10 friendship attributes, and judged them more favorably only on their outgoingness.

Promiscuous men only identified mate guarding and dislike of sexuality when they favored less sexually active men as friends.

Researchers believe that women dislike their bed-hopping peers because they want to protect their relationships and distance themselves from any stigma that is attached to being friends with promiscuous women.