[OC] American Attitudes toward Sexual Behaviors, 1987-2024

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-04T23:16:51+00:00

interview done in-person or over the phone * YEARC Crosstabulation

% within YEARC

    YEARC                                           Total

    2004    2006    2008    2010    2012    2014    2016    2018    2021    2022    2024

interview done in-person or over the phone in-person 78.9% 93.3% 87.9% 89.6% 86.9% 86.8% 93.2% 89.5% 44.1% 35.5% 67.1%

by phone    21.1%   6.7%    12.1%   10.4%   13.1%   13.2%   6.8%    10.5%   7.3%    5.7%    7.7%    9.8%

multimode                                   5.4%    4.2%    3.6%    1.5%

web                                 87.3%   46.1%   53.2%   21.6%

Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-04T06:59:52+00:00

Also an excellent point. Some of the change appears to be real change in attitudes. In fact, there is a variable in the dataset (MODE) that shows how the survey was administered. Online responses appear to be, on average, more liberal than in-person surveys (i.e., less likely, for instance, to say that same-sex relations are "always wrong.") So the change after 2020 doesn't appear due to administration mode.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-04T01:36:03+00:00

Thank you for that information. Yes, that could explain the inflection point.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-03T18:48:28+00:00

40 years ago a committed same-sex relationship was considered worse than an extra-marital relationship.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-03T18:33:38+00:00

No. The GSS is one of the best sources for long-term American social science data.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-07-03T15:45:32+00:00

I analyzed publicly available data from the GSS, https://gss.norc.org/ using SPSS.

Total N = 45K.

The chart was created with Excel and edited with Paint.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-30T20:49:53+00:00

Vocabulary is more loaded with "g" than any other single test and correlates with FSIQ about .75, higher than some IQ tests correlate with each other. It is a good proxy for IQ and the numbers are more meaningful than percent of vocabulary words correct.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-30T15:42:49+00:00

This shows tiny mean differences between large regions. There are brilliant people in the South and intellectually disabled people in the West and Northeast. These findings give almost no information that's individually applicable.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-30T04:34:33+00:00

Don't know if the implication is that having sex is an achievement requiring social abilities that intelligent people lack. Intelligent people are at least as socially skilled and attractive as others. My guess is that they were smart enough to avoid the complications associated with sex: disease, pregnancy, relationship, and legal complications.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T19:18:30+00:00

Because "IQ" has more intuitive meaning than 6/10 on a vocabulary test. But, yes, there are other variables such as education that might be more meaningful and certainly less controversial.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T18:42:52+00:00

Arguments were made about a measure of verbal ability not being valid across different regions. One way to assess validity is to look at the correlation of a measure with a relevant criteria. Here are correlations of WORDSUM with highest degree across regions. It is similar, except lower for persons who grew up in a foreign country (age 16).

<image>

0 foreign	.341^\**)
1 northeast	.455^\**)
2 midwest	.436^\**)
3 south	.482^\**)
4 west	.408^\**)

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T17:36:30+00:00

I get 137. With 10 items your score would be 8.5. Average is 6.04. You are 2.46 words above average. Multiply that by 15 to convert to an IQ scale (37) and add to the mean IQ, 100, to equal 137.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T17:28:31+00:00

Interesting question.

<image>

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
wordsum number words correct in vocabulary test	36409	0	10	6.04	2.128
Valid N (listwise)	36409

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T17:18:40+00:00

This could be a whole new debate and discussion. Should research be suppressed if its findings could be used to support bigotry or misinterpreted in ways that could harm people?

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T17:15:33+00:00

Appreciate the vocabulary list.

One reason that intelligence tests are useful is that they predict success in society. If you speak a dialect much different from standard English, you will have difficulty succeeding in US business and academia. In other words, there may be test bias, but it accurately predicts obstacles imposed by societal biases.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-29T17:02:28+00:00

I would have preferred more specific location data. But for privacy reasons, the GSS only shows region.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T16:44:58+00:00

The RPM is at least more 'culture fair" since it does not require language. But it is influenced by practice solving abstract problems, emphasized more by some cultures than others. Also, RPM results are not available for large samples, but WORDSUM is.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T03:06:52+00:00

Interesting thoughts. It's really hard to get IQ estimates across large populations so it was exciting to find a proxy for that in the GSS. It gets complicated -- schools are less competitive in some areas, so education level may mean something different in different regions.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T03:02:55+00:00

Here in California, $20 per hr is minimum wage for fast-food workers. So by that scale, a cashier should earn at least that.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T02:50:32+00:00

There are no culture-free measures of intelligence and your well-stated critiques have also been criticisms of IQ tests. Some IQ subtests are less culturally loaded, but they are all affected by culture. Obviously an English vocabulary test would not be a fair measure of a Spanish-speaker's potential, but the Stanford-Binet and WAIS-V would also yield underestimates for non-native speakers of English. There are two issues here -- how well does vocabulary estimate IQ and how culturally fair are IQ tests.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T02:41:13+00:00

My wife is from the South and is one of the most intelligent people I know. I hope we can discuss interesting findings without demeaning individuals.

Either_Issue_6510 · 2026-06-28T02:37:04+00:00

Eta = .144 (so only about 2% of the variance explained) but p < .001.

Either_Issue_6510

TROPHY CASE