I guess the basic objection is that people will not talk about their sexual behavior honestly. The usual assumption is that men will exaggerate and women will understate their experiences. You can read Edward Laumann's book about how the surveys are conducted. They spent a lot of time designing the questionnaires and training the interviewers. It's too much to summarize and explain here. I am not sure that I am convinced entirely, but I think they reduced the bias significantly. The citation is:
The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. (With John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael and Stuart Michaels.) His recent work on China is really interesting for economists in that as part of the survey they were able to get urine samples from most of the participants. They found exceptionally low rates of STDs everywhere in the population, except for businessmen, who had very high rates. It seem that these men frequent brothels during their travels and engage in unprotected sex. Laumann argues that this is very dangerous because the economic elite of China has a sexual Achilles's heel, and that it is only a matter of time before HIV becomes prevalent in this group. DVM On Wed, 21 Jan 2004, john hull wrote: > "I would. It happens all the time." > > So what are the methodologies of the auto-erotic > reporting studies and how are they flawed? > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes > http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus > _______________________________________________________________________________ Dimitriy V. Masterov Work: Center for Social Program Evaluation 1155 East 60th St. Room 038 Chicago, IL 60637 Work: (773)256-6005 Fax: (773)256-6313 Home: 1312 East 53rd St., Apt.309 Chicago, IL 60615 Mobile: (773)220-2760
