The Truth Comes Out

In a study released out of Ohio State University this week, researchers have found that… well, I think it all boils down to the interesting notion that you can't trust a woman to give you an honest answer on a sex survey, unless she fills it out while she's home alone, wearing sunglasses, and then sends it to you anonymously and encrypted. And maybe not even then.

Researchers gave around 200 straight male and female college students questionnaires about their sexual attitudes, history, experience, behavior, number of partners, etc. Participants were split into three groups. One group filled out the surveys alone in a closed room and were told their answers would be completely anonymous. Another group was told that the researchers might read their answers and the researchers purposely sat right outside the room with the door open. And students in the third group were hooked up to what they thought was a working lie detector and told that researchers would know if they lied on the survey, so they might as well be honest.

In general, the male participants' responses didn't vary between the three groups. They always told the same story and didn't care who knew it. The women, on the other hand, appeared to care about what people would think if they read their answers and knew that the survey belonged to them personally. Women who thought their surveys might be read "watered down" their answers, as if trying to conform a little more to what the broader society expects of women. For example, the average number of sexual partners reported by women hooked up to the fake lie detector was 4.4, while the number reported by those with the researcher sitting nearby was only 2.6.

The study also reported finding that — once you pick the more accurate data set — there's far less difference between men and women in sexual behavior than ever before. The differences that remain are in terms of what women are willing to admit about their sexual attitudes and behavior.

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