Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex:
Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found.
Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.
The article does point out skepticism by a couple of other researchers, but the title and the lede suggest that they'd prefer the readers to ignore the skepticism.
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"Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones."
So what they're basically saying is that teenagers who listen to popular music have sex earlier than those who don't? I think I could have probably worked that out.
raunchy music and sexual behavior may be corolated, or causally related, but isn't that where the reasearch begins, a testible hypothesis?
It might just as easily be that more sexually active teens are the ones most attracked to and the ones likely to listen to raunchy music.
and this gets us to another issues entirely. people who would be interested in such research, might have a particular religious or moral axe to grind, proving the corelation to support a ban on too easy sex, rather than just asking a testible question.
and finally, if music doesn't reflect the raging hormones of the teen years, when will it?
good grief, charlie brown! mbkmd has said most of what i was going to say....and where's the generational/historical comparisons because the 'flapper era' had it's raunch, as well as the blues, and yes, classical music too. some will try bend anything to suit their judgements and morals (hey i'm not condoning early sex, but let's get real with the studies)
I guess they have ruled out the possibility of a common causitive factor. For instance, perhaps this group eats more turnips. Or maybe they all like the color puce. Or perhaps they were all born under the same astrological sign. A more promising idea might be that their levels of sexual hormones are higher or that they are more strongly influenced by the same levels of hormones, for some physiological or psychological reason . Both forms of expression would arise from this common factor.
I am actually someone who morns the fact that childhood cannot last longer. For all its pleasures, I think that sex really can be a form of insanity. And delaying its onset increases the chances that a person can counteract its side effects in a more calm, rational, well- adjusted manner. That's a hypothesis, too. It's a lot harder to test. So I guess we get scientific hypotheses like " iPods transform babes into sexual maniacs" Junk science is not dead.
My first look at a science blog..... I was skeptical that there was much to see or say. No longer.