The below is a conversation with a female friend I had. Or perhaps it was a conversation from Emil’s devious research methodology class. Who knows. :)
[She wants to compare herself to other people for how many pushups she can do]
Emil O. W.
Where did you get this average from?Hard to sample women at random. For men we have military data, age 18.
Girl
the first google result for “how many pushups should i be able to do”Emil O. W.
Yea.
And if you ask how long the average penis is, is that the real average?
Girl
probably not!
Emil O. W.
Surely not
All the more unfortunate given that girth is apparently more important.
So not only are boys getting the wrong numbers, they are looking at the wrong parameter!
Girl
i guess but as with most things it’s the composite that matters most
Emil O. W.
It’s not very easy to find out. Suppose we survey women about what they like. They could be wrong. After all, how many otherwise identical partners did they have that differed in only penis length or girth? There’s a sample size problem. Second, they didn’t just have sex with randomly chosen men, there was some selection from both sides (usually!).Okay, we get smart. Suppose we survey couples. We measure the partners and see which attributes predict orgasm in their partners (length, girth, straightness, tit size, ass size, BMI, WHR, etc.). But even this is not so straightforward. Maybe women that are easier to orgasm select (or retain) men with smaller penises, obscuring the relationship.
Emil O. W.
Maybe we get really clever. We look for people who had penis surgery while having a partner. We get before and after orgasm rates from their partners.
But then, the surgery might have caused other things, like improved self-worth or sexual confidence, or may have reduced the sensation men get, so they last longer….
Really complicated research question!
[slightly edited for clarity/errors]
The small task of demonstrating the above points with appropriate simulations is left to the reader.