Uh-uh. No you didn't!
Salon has a post referencing an article in the Guardian about UC-Berkeley performing a study on what goes through men's minds and what distractions they may face whilst they are self-pleasuring. (You've gotta click through the ad to read, but please do, o.m.g!)
When I encounter such reports, I invariably flash to the particulars of such a thing, such as:
- Who determined how the test would be administered; how they set up the steps and so-forth? Wouldn't that have been a meeting to experience? ("No, Tommy, we have to consider that one hand is busy, so how do they record responses? I don't want to have to be in the room to assist.")
- How did they solicit participants? What did the ad or flier look like?
- So you're the person who has to instruct the young buck on what to do (at least the part he's not had plenty of practice at). How do you not die of embarrassment, or not burst out into laughter?
- Did they plan for the contingency of having accidental, uh, spillage on the recording mechanism and/or forms? (Anti-stick paper, perhaps?)
- Why no women? (Or is that rhetorical since most women would respond with "You want me to what?" and that'd be the end of it.)
- Apparently, they record what the dominant hand is.
- You are the guy who decided to stroke for science. What the hell?
- Who in the hell thought of doing this in the first place and why?
Ya'll have any additions/thoughts on the topic?
2 comments:
Having lived for a few years in Berkeley (Eudoxus did his graduate work there), I have to say that pretty much all your questions presume a level of self-consciousness and ordinary shamefacedness that almost certainly did not exist. If flyers were used, they would have given a straightforward description of the study, and been posted in public. The instructor and instructees would have felt neither embarassment nor amusement in discussing the procedure, and would be surprised that you'd think they might.
BTW I couldn't read the Salon article, but I sure hope they mentioned this great bit from the Guardian piece:
"This is a dig at theorists - the ones who advise people to just say no - from experimentalists who are unafraid to get their hands dirty."
Note to self: Avoid Berkely.
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