Are you homosexual? : Cognitive Daily

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Greta Munger is Professor of Psychology at Davidson College whose works include The History of Psychology: Fundamental Questions. Dave Munger now writes at The Daily Monthly. He is co-founder and editor of ResearchBlogging.org and a columnist on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. And yes, he is married to Greta.

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« The words you can't ignore, even if you only see them for 1/10 of a second | Main | Selection bias and homosexuality »

Are you homosexual?

Category: General / Site news
Posted on: February 10, 2009 3:31 PM, by Dave Munger

I'm having a dispute with a reader in an online forum. Let's settle it here with a quick, private poll:

Trust me, this is related to psychology.

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Comments

I can't answer this poll. You need a "bisexual" option. The "mostly" options aren't accurate for me.

Posted by: Misty Fowler | February 10, 2009 3:42 PM

Okay, fixed. Sorry about that! Should take a few minutes to update with new options.

Posted by: Dave Munger | February 10, 2009 3:46 PM

ok you'd better follow this up with an explanation.

Posted by: Thomas | February 10, 2009 3:50 PM

you can find all the stats you need on the topic at: here

Posted by: chee | February 10, 2009 4:48 PM

I chose "other". I classify myself as "pansexual". My personal interpretation of that means that I am attracted to an individual regardless of gender or gender identity. For information sake- I'm 37, and identify as and was born female.

Posted by: WritinginCt | February 10, 2009 5:15 PM

I answered "other" because I am asexual. I am romantically attracted to both men and women, but I am sexually attracted to neither.

Posted by: LadyPoetess | February 10, 2009 5:31 PM

This survey is self selecting.

Non heterosexual people are more sensative about orientation issues and are more likely to answer a poll like this. You need to due blind testing.

Btw I vote a non hetero option.

Posted by: mike | February 10, 2009 5:38 PM

The survey is also self-selecting for those that like one of these flavors of labels.
My personal favorite labels are "queermosexual" "ambisextrous" or just "nonheteronormative"

Posted by: Becca | February 10, 2009 5:41 PM

I'm guessing Dave said something like, "well, most of my readers..." to actually provide evidence of something, and then another commenter who didn't like that outcome replied, "well, most of your readers are gay".

ahh, the enlightenment of anonymous discourse.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1771556 (link definitely pg13+)

Posted by: Kevin H | February 10, 2009 6:06 PM

Mike: You're exactly right -- that was the whole point of this exercise. See this post summing up the results.

Posted by: Dave Munger | February 10, 2009 6:11 PM

This poll is completely biased...

(1) The "bisexual" option is ridiculous. It completely negates and defeats the "mostly" options.

(2) The "other" option is...? Huh? Other?? What else is there, "bestiality only"...?

(3) Your sampling is EXTREMELY limited -- limited only to your blog readers.

(4) It's not stated that it's anonymous anywhere which COMPLETELY biases it AGAINST anyone NOT wanting to publicly admit that they are GAY.

And most importantly of all...

(5) The TITLE of the poll matters.

You used a derogatory term in the title of the poll. Come on... At least TRY to hide your bias....

"HOMOSEXUAL"....? Who uses that term?

Pleeezzzz.

Posted by: Bruce Wagner | February 10, 2009 6:19 PM

There's one category missing, the people everyone ignores and doesn't want to think about. Who are they? Asexuals. People uninterested in sex. They're around, but nobody (but me?) seems the least bit curious about them.

Posted by: 6EQUJ5 | February 10, 2009 7:04 PM

Bruce:

The whole point is for the sample to be my blog readers. We're comparing the results of last week's survey with this poll, to see if the phrasing of the post title makes a difference.

"Homosexual" is a derogatory term? Where did you hear that? If you look up "homosexual" and "gay" on http://urbandictionary.com you'll see that "gay" can have negative connotations and "homosexual" does not.

I'll respond to your other objections on the other post.

Posted by: Dave Munger | February 10, 2009 10:21 PM

The TITLE of the poll matters. You used a derogatory term in the title of the poll. Come on... At least TRY to hide your bias.... "HOMOSEXUAL"....? Who uses that term? Pleeezzzz.

You're joking, right? If that's the case, then calling people "heterosexual" would also be considered derogatory. I had no idea general prefixes of Greek origin were considered offensive.

Posted by: Richardy | February 11, 2009 1:26 AM

I'm guessing that this is a poll to identify the proportion of people who fly off the handle at the mere suggestion of trying to measure anything to do with sexuality, or to assess the proportion of people who pepper their replies with LOTS OF WORDS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. I mean, come on ... PUH-LEEEAZE!!??

Anyway, I hope no-one is going to LABEL me as sarcastic on the basis of this response. There's no way that my preferred style of humour could be CATEGORIZED like this. I prefer to think of myself as pan-humourous.

Posted by: David | February 11, 2009 8:32 AM

This poll question made me immediately think of my favourite Onion article.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33540

:-)

Posted by: Greg Vincent | February 11, 2009 8:53 PM

The categories offered are all false choices based upon the false assumption that people are defined by what they feel like doing with their body parts. It's the Kinsey myth. I'm a guy. End of story. Anything else is just identity politics and junk science.

Posted by: Jeff | February 15, 2009 5:39 PM

So someone who's 70% straight isn't bisexual then? I never knew that before....

Posted by: Dee | February 17, 2009 8:17 AM