Would You Offer Details About Your Sex Life In The Name Of Science? If It Were Anonymous?
By Karen Noble
The Kinsey Institute, the leader in sex studies named for the famous sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, has released a new app called the Kinsey Reporter which they hope people will use to report anonymously on their sexual activities.
“This new platform will allow us to explore issues that have been challenging to study until now, such as the prevalence of unreported sexual violence in different parts of the world, or the correlation between various sexual practices like condom use, for example, and the cultural, political, religious or health contexts in particular geographical areas. These were some of our initial motivations for the project,” the press release for the app said.
Which means, the Kinsey Institute wants to hear your weird, effed up, tragic or out-there sex stories. And as stated above, it could really help shape realistic numbers for unreported sexual assault and rape — victims might feel more comfortable reporting anonymously to the app than going to the police. This gives the Kinsey Institute a better idea of the actual statistics.
The problem with anonymous reporting and crowd-sourced data though is that it’s unreliable. People could easily start reporting urban legends or untrue experiences. But, on the surface, it is interesting to see what people will observe in their specific communities or locations and what people will be willing to share.
What would you tell researchers about your or your friends’ sex lives or experiences if you could be totally anonymous? Would you report to the Kinsey Institute in the name of research? Would an app like this even be useful?
Leave a comment and discuss.
