The Daily Mail ran this
headline on their glorious website the other day:
“Whatever happened to the joy of
sex? One in three women feel depressed after making love”
So let’s just look at that
headline. Well if you
haven’t guessed it already, it is utter shit. For starters, it even
misrepresents the survey they based it on.
The story explains: “More than
200 young women were quizzed on life between the sheets and 33 per cent
reported feeling depressed after sex at
some point in their lives.” The phrase ‘at some point’ is key. The headline
clearly claims that a third of women are
depressed after sex, not just at least once. So if we rewrite the headline:
“Not much has happened to the joy
of sex. Only one in three women felt depressed at some point in their lives
after sex”
The story just does not have that
shock factor anymore, and this is just for starters. The article is based on a
study conducted by the “Queensland Institute of Technology”, which does not
exist. This is a pretty good early warning sign that the author of apparent ‘journalism’
is just a little bit crap at checking her work. As any quick Google will
reveal, the research was actually conducted by the Queensland University of Technology, but no biggie.
At least the study is real.
The
study was conducted with a sample size of 222 female university students
who responded to a questionnaire. It was designed as a starting point for
further research into the rarely studied phenomena referred to as ‘postcoital
blues’. The sample size is what Data Dredge will call just above the ‘L’Oreal
level’ (95% of 183 women agreed that their hair looked revitalised…). So here
is problem number one, the sample is relatively small.
The sample also has a demographic
problem. The average age is just over 24, they are all from one current
geographic location and their education is going to be of a higher standard
than many in Australia. This means that blanket statements, like the Mail story,
cannot actually be made on the basis of this one survey. The sample is simply
not varied enough in every aspect to claim conclusive results.
Another problem is the sexual history of the sample. 36.8% reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse and 25.0% reported having been forced or frightened into an unwanted sexual act before the age of 16. Apart from the disturbing nature of these statistics they cause a real problem when it comes to the reliability of the survey. The Mail, if it had taken a cursory glance at the report instead copying and pasting a press release, would have by its own standards of proof been able to claim that 36.8% of women have been sexually abused. This, if true, would be incredibly scary. In fact the figure of child abuse, which the sample has at 25%, is estimated at around 12% of women in Australia. This shows the sample size to be a poor representation of Australian women and women as a whole.
Another problem is the sexual history of the sample. 36.8% reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse and 25.0% reported having been forced or frightened into an unwanted sexual act before the age of 16. Apart from the disturbing nature of these statistics they cause a real problem when it comes to the reliability of the survey. The Mail, if it had taken a cursory glance at the report instead copying and pasting a press release, would have by its own standards of proof been able to claim that 36.8% of women have been sexually abused. This, if true, would be incredibly scary. In fact the figure of child abuse, which the sample has at 25%, is estimated at around 12% of women in Australia. This shows the sample size to be a poor representation of Australian women and women as a whole.
This is not to attack the authors
of the survey who by their own admissions understand that their approach of a self-assessed
survey and limited sample size can distort the results. With self-assessment
comes the conscious or sub-conscious desire to adjust some of the answers to
appear to be within what is felt to be a social norm, even when the survey is
anonymous.
So, after all this, just how shit
is the Daily Mail claim? Well, what we have is a prime example of perfectly
reputable science being utterly misunderstood by a journalist. The Daily Mail’s
desperate attempts to get their stories on Google by mentioning sex and making
shocking sex claims has driven the quality of the journalism down. Mentioning sex
over and over again in an article is just pathetic. Sex.
So what would the headline read
as now?
“Something might have happened to
the joy of sex. One in three of 222 female Australian University students with
abnormal rates of sexual abuse report feeling depressed after sex”
Shocking read.
As for the actual number of women
it is hard to say. As the report authors point out, no thorough research into
the area of ‘postcoital blues’ has been carried out. How depressing.
If you like it then share it!
If you suspect a dodgy claim is being made by a member of our wonderful
press then Tweet me @mattjreason
with the tag #datadredge. I also accept abuse. If you think I have got
something wrong then do the same. If you wish to sue or some other ghastly
thing then fuck off.
Good and thorough work. Hope you carry on in the same vain. Will be keeping an eye out. - George A Redditor
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