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The Duke Sex List has generated…

… lots of interesting responses. Writers debate in particular the author’s motivations.

The likeliest motivation, which does not appear on the list of possibilities to which I’ve linked you, seems to UD simple intellectual curiosity. Not to get revenge, or reassure yourself you’re hot, or compare notes to confirm you’re normal, or take control of your own narrative, yadda yadda

Why don’t people take the thesis for what it is? It’s a thesis. This is a woman interested in a perfectly interesting question. How does a particular group of people behave sexually? What are the variants, etc?

Do we look at a Masters and Johnson study and say they did it in order to take control of their personal narratives?

True, their methods were not as unorthodox – or unethical – as those here, but the Owen study wouldn’t be the first in which an observer was in one way or another involved in her own protocol.

Margaret Soltan, October 13, 2010 7:59AM
Posted in: march of science

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4 Responses to “The Duke Sex List has generated…”

  1. david foster Says:

    Methinks you jest….but on the off chance that you’re serious, the study could have been improved by including other groups…say, the literature club and the calculus club…so that cross-group comparisons could be made. (Of course, this raises issues of sample size and logistical feasibility)

    Imagine a bar graph with “average satisfaction per encounter” on the Y axis and “lacrosse players, literature club members, and calculus club member” on the X axis. This is possible Nobel Prize material, especially to the extent that the higher bar aligns with the backgrounds of the prize judges…

  2. Bill Gleason Says:

    small sample statistics can be dangerous, David…

  3. david foster Says:

    Bill…”small sample statistics can be dangerous”…indeed. But given the mathematical illiteracy of most journalists, this shouldn’t get in the way of extensive media coverage…

  4. University Diaries » “Something ugly is going on at the university — a mercenary intensity that has been gathering strength for the past two decades.” Says:

    […] it quickly shifts to a merciless attack on Ms Sex Thesis herself, Karen Owen (background here and here. Flanagan calls this Duke senior (she was a senior when she researched and wrote the sex thesis; […]

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