Spring Break
Princeton by the Numbers
The Importance of Data-Driven Approaches to Campus Issues
James Coan '09
Issue date: 9/30/09 Section: Opinion
Yet this opinion can be tested with survey data. UHS, using the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), asks Princeton students how many sexual partners they've had in the past year. According to UHS director Dr. John Kolligian, only 23.8% of students reported having two or more sexual partners (vaginal, oral, or anal) in the past year, and a plurality, 43%, reported having zero.
These data strongly suggest that the desire to sleep with as many people as possible is more of a subculture than a dominant one at Princeton. They seem to indicate a more dominant culture of sexual restraint where the majority of students accept sex within relationships but generally avoid having frequent "free" sex.
Although it is true that this question does not ask about casual sex explicitly, it is clear that a large majority of students very infrequently change partners, whether or not the sex is within a committed relationship. Selection bias is also possible to some extent, but after leading the COMBO II survey this past spring, I have found that students who respond to surveys represent the student body as whole fairly well - nothing that would push the number who engage in casual sex with multiple partners near 50%, making it a dominant culture.
Parsing words, I accept that a "dominant ethos" could mean an ideal that students share rather than their actual behaviors. However, this interpretation would lead to the strange argument that thinking highly of casual sex in itself is harmful.
Anscombe's arguments implying the rampant nature of casual sex on campus likely contribute to an existing perception gap that existed before the group's existence. A 2000 survey administered by UHS, "Relationship and Sexual Practices," found that only 20.6% of Princeton students had two or more partners in the past year but 67.7% thought the average student had two or more. This perception gap can contribute to what is known in academic circles as pluralistic ignorance, when students actually change their behaviors to be more like their conception of the average student, even if reality differs. Professor Deborah Prentice, chair of the Psychology Department and an expert on pluralistic ignorance at Princeton in terms of the drinking culture, explains, "I think the majority opinion in the field supports the existence of pluralistic ignorance" in terms of sexual activity. She admits, though, that unlike drinking, "the empirical documentation of it is thin."
These data strongly suggest that the desire to sleep with as many people as possible is more of a subculture than a dominant one at Princeton. They seem to indicate a more dominant culture of sexual restraint where the majority of students accept sex within relationships but generally avoid having frequent "free" sex.
Although it is true that this question does not ask about casual sex explicitly, it is clear that a large majority of students very infrequently change partners, whether or not the sex is within a committed relationship. Selection bias is also possible to some extent, but after leading the COMBO II survey this past spring, I have found that students who respond to surveys represent the student body as whole fairly well - nothing that would push the number who engage in casual sex with multiple partners near 50%, making it a dominant culture.
Parsing words, I accept that a "dominant ethos" could mean an ideal that students share rather than their actual behaviors. However, this interpretation would lead to the strange argument that thinking highly of casual sex in itself is harmful.
Anscombe's arguments implying the rampant nature of casual sex on campus likely contribute to an existing perception gap that existed before the group's existence. A 2000 survey administered by UHS, "Relationship and Sexual Practices," found that only 20.6% of Princeton students had two or more partners in the past year but 67.7% thought the average student had two or more. This perception gap can contribute to what is known in academic circles as pluralistic ignorance, when students actually change their behaviors to be more like their conception of the average student, even if reality differs. Professor Deborah Prentice, chair of the Psychology Department and an expert on pluralistic ignorance at Princeton in terms of the drinking culture, explains, "I think the majority opinion in the field supports the existence of pluralistic ignorance" in terms of sexual activity. She admits, though, that unlike drinking, "the empirical documentation of it is thin."
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posted 12/15/09 @ 8:43 AM EST
To be sure, data must be used well, and it is wise to follow the aphorism that there are "lies, damn lies, and statistics."
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