Two out of three men think women should help pay for a date, although most feel guilty about accepting their money, a US study out Saturday suggests.
Of the 64 percent wanting to split the bill, 44 percent said they'd even ditch a love interest who never doled out any dollars.
That said, 76 percent of men felt bad about pocketing payments from possible partners.
The findings are based on research led by psychologist David Frederick of Chapman University in California.
He oversaw a team that combed through data from more than 17,000 people to see how changing gender norms have impacted on time-honored notions of courtship.
Eighty-four percent of men, and 58 percent of women, reported that men pay for most dating expenses, even after they've been going steady for a while.
Fifty-seven percent of women claimed they had offered to pay for a date -- although 39 percent confessed they hoped the man would reject their offer to chip in.
In any event, over time, the vast majority of participants, both male and female, said they shared dating expenses in the first six months of seeing someone exclusively.
Frederick, whose previous research has focused on body image, said the study was motivated by a desire "to understand why some gendered practices are more resistant to change than others."
It was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that opened in New York Saturday and runs through Tuesday.