Equipment Size: What is average?

Normal Curves: Sexy Science, Serious Statistics

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Today’s deep dive: the surprisingly serious science of penis size. Using self-report surveys, objective measurements, and a healthy dose of old-school statistics, we ask: How do you get clean data on gentlemen’s goods?Along the way, we explore social desirability bias, survey design tricks, and what happens when science meets insecurity. You’ll never look at a Starbucks cup the same way again.

Statistical topics

Social desirability bias
Selection bias
Volunteer Bias
Descriptive Statistics
Right-Skewed Distributions
Strategies to improve accuracy in self-report data

Methodological morals

“When answers aim to please, truth takes its leave.”
“Without descriptive statistics, you'll never know if you measure up.”

References

CROWNE DP, MARLOWE D. A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. J Consult Psychol. 1960;24:349-354. doi:10.1037/h0047358
Gebhard, P.H. and Johnson, A.B., 1998. The Kinsey data: Marginal tabulations of the 1938-1963 interviews conducted by the Institute for Sex Research. Indiana University Press.
Herbenick D, Reece M, Schick V, Sanders SA. Erect penile length and circumference dimensions of 1,661 sexually active men in the United States. J Sex Med. 2014;11(1):93-101. doi:10.1111/jsm.12244
Johnston, L., McLellan, T., & McKinlay, A. (2014). (Perceived) size really does matter: Male dissatisfaction with penis size. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 15(2), 225–228. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033264
King BM. The Influence of Social Desirability on Sexual Behavior Surveys: A Review. Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(3):1495-1501. doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02197-0
King BM. Average-Size Erect Penis: Fiction, Fact, and the Need for Counseling. J Sex Marital Ther. 2021;47(1):80-89. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2020.1787279
King BM, Duncan LM, Clinkenbeard KM, Rutland MB, Ryan KM. Social Desirability and Young Men's Self-Reports of Penis Size. J Sex Marital Ther. 2019;45(5):452-455. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2018.1533905
Larson, R.B., 2019. Controlling social desirability bias. International Journal of Market Research, 61(5), pp.534-547.
Stodel, M. (2015). But What Will People Think?: Getting beyond Social Desirability Bias by Increasing Cognitive Load. International Journal of Market Research, 57(2), 313-322. https://doi.org/10.2501/IJMR-2015-024 (Original work published 2015)

Spreadsheet with Penis Length Data

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(00:00) - Introduction
(02:33) - Starbucks metric and episode themes
(07:17) - Men and women’s sampling frames
(09:24) - Kinsey and his studies
(14:59) - Statistics quiz on Kinsey penis data
(22:10) - Social desirability bias
(29:17) - Cognitive tricks to elicit honest survey answers
(35:10) - Condoms, honest penis lengths, and another stats quiz
(41:30) - Objective penis appraisers, measurement error, and reliability
(46:42) - Whose penises? Volunteer and selection bias
(50:27) - Mini-meta-analysis and the “answer”
(52:06) - Wrap-up and methodological morals

22 episodes