Polymath1976

Polymath1976 scribbled:

Thanks for putting this up. So say we all!

01 / 24 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

I agree with your main premise. Namely, it is far more likely that women will contain small groups with very high partner counts than it is that men will. It is far easier, after all, for a woman to get laid if she is not bashful about it. I also agree that the distribution for women could be bimodal, although I suspect that the mode to the right will have a far lower peak than the one to the left. I assume that we can agree that if the entire population were surveyed, the averages would be essentially equal (differing only slightly due to unequal denominators). Your claim is that the small group of women with astronomical partner counts are easy to miss due to their scarcity, thereby deflating the average for all women. The behavior of most women is represented by the lower average, since the ones who were missed are not representative of the population. Men, on the other hand, more closely resemble one another in their behavior, so their higher average is accurate. I do see your point, and I do think that some variation in the data can be explained that way. Even so, I still believe that there is significant over- and under-reporting taking place in these surveys. A sample of N women would require skipping over enough promiscuous women in the population to account for 14N uncounted sexual partners in order to explain the results in the survey I discuss. If we are talking about a sample size of 1,000, then there are 14,000 sexual relationships that were missed due to our choice of the particular women sampled. It could be as easy as missing 14 women who each slept with 1,000 men. That is certainly possible. (It would all depend on their concentration in the population. If it is anywhere near even one percent, it is highly unlikely that 14 would be missed in a sample of 1,000.) But as the sample size goes up, that sort of scenario becomes much less likely. (This is of course why sampling error goes down with increasing sample size.)

3 p.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sexual Statistics

This article proves the fallacy of one of the more frequently referenced statistics in human sexuality, namely the wide disparity between the repor...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

Perhaps the main point I would make to challenge this claim is this: There is evidence of the improbability of missing these women in a well-designed survey to be found in the reports of the men. In other words, the men—and lots of them—had no problem finding them, suggesting that the local social network containing these men was sufficiently well connected to permit their meeting these women. The men have been sampled from that network, and so have the women, creating similar odds of forming a good sample. Promiscuous women may be more rare—and more promiscuous—than promiscuous men, but I do not believe the rarity is sufficient to explain a whopping 14-point differential between the sexes. After all, if the concentration of these women in the population was low enough to make missing them in a survey likely, it becomes unlikely that their social connectivity would be sufficient to have their "attention" fairly evenly distributed among the men, which is a crucial part of your argument. What would be great, and what I bet we'd both like to see, is some deeper statistical results—range, variance, sample size, etc.—that would put these results in context. Thanks again for your comments. I really enjoyed the exchange.

3 p.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sexual Statistics

This article proves the fallacy of one of the more frequently referenced statistics in human sexuality, namely the wide disparity between the repor...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

That is an interesting and fair point, John. Indeed, one might get strange results estimating a population average if one missed outliers (prostitutes, Wilt Chamberlain, etc.) when collecting data. (I allude to the possibility in my third footnote.) But keep in mind that these are not ordinary discrete data we are working with, since they refer to relationships between two elements (or edges between nodes, if you like). The key point is that a yes answer in the female group requires a yes answer somewhere in the male group and vice versa. Promiscuous people (women or men) would act as hubs in a network, but no matter how high their numbers, they could add at most one to anyone else's count. Missing such people in a random sampling is possible, but missing enough of them to create the type of disparity seen in this survey and others like it is tremendously unlikely. What I think is the case with the survey I looked at is that two phenomena occurred: 1) The polled subjects were less than completely honest. 2) The survey itself was poorly designed. It is possible that the second phenomenon was the most weighty in this case, but I am convinced that the first also played a significant role. Thank you for your thought-provoking comments!

3 p.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sexual Statistics

This article proves the fallacy of one of the more frequently referenced statistics in human sexuality, namely the wide disparity between the repor...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

01 / 12 / 2009

Polymath1976 published:

81 p.

Mathematics Review

A draft of a mathematics review I wrote based on material drawn from several sources. It is at the level covered by the GRE subject test in mathem...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

01 / 09 / 2009

sagarmani scribbled:

i found the site as very useful for mathematics studnets. plz paste more about the subject matter. sagarmath@gmail.com

08 / 23 / 2008

pksharma scribbled:

Excellent Collection

09 / 30 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

Thank you for your kind comments. I am glad you are finding the document useful.

09 / 30 / 2008

kieng62 scribbled:

Thanks a lot for contributing a great thing. ;-)

10 / 08 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

You're very welcome, and thank you for your comment. I hope that you find it useful.

10 / 08 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

You're very welcome, and thank you for your comment. I hope that you find it useful.

81 p.

Mathematics Review

A draft of a mathematics review I wrote based on material drawn from several sources. It is at the level covered by the GRE subject test in mathem...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

10 / 08 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

Thank you for your kind comments. I am glad you are finding the document useful.

81 p.

Mathematics Review

A draft of a mathematics review I wrote based on material drawn from several sources. It is at the level covered by the GRE subject test in mathem...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

09 / 30 / 2008

Polymath1976 published:

3 p.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sexual Statistics

This article proves the fallacy of one of the more frequently referenced statistics in human sexuality, namely the wide disparity between the repor...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

09 / 22 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

That is an interesting and fair point, John. Indeed, one might get strange results estimating a population average if one missed outliers (prostitutes, Wilt Chamberlain, etc.) when collecting data...

01 / 12 / 2009

johneosborne scribbled:

Here's the problem I have with the idea that the survey is poorly designed - these results come up again and again, in different countries by different researchers and in different generations. The...

01 / 13 / 2009

johneosborne scribbled:

To clarify: there is certainly a survey design problem here, but I'm suggesting that the surveys are accurate for nearly all men and women. They might be inaccurate for only a very small number of ...

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

+ Show more replies

Polymath1976 published:

3 p.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sexual Statistics

This article proves the fallacy of one of the more frequently referenced statistics in human sexuality, namely the wide disparity between the repor...

From: Polymath1976

Category:

09 / 22 / 2008

Polymath1976 scribbled:

That is an interesting and fair point, John. Indeed, one might get strange results estimating a population average if one missed outliers (prostitutes, Wilt Chamberlain, etc.) when collecting data...

01 / 12 / 2009

johneosborne scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

johneosborne scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

Polymath1976 scribbled:

01 / 13 / 2009

+ Show more replies

Polymath1976 published:

81 p.