“ ‘Hookups,’ sexual interactions between partners who do not expect a romantic commitment, are believed to be common among adolescents and young adults.” So reads the abstract for a government-funded sex study by two Syracuse University researchers.
The study breaks new ground, the abstract claims, because it “provides the first prospective investigation of the hypothesized predictors of penetrative sex hookups (i.e., oral, vaginal and anal sex) and the first exploration of the short-term mental health consequences of hookups.”
Not surprisingly, “intoxication” was a leading predictor of hooking up among first-semester Syracuse students. Also not surprising was the finding that prurient, pre-marital sex “increased psychological distress for females, but not for males.”
In fact, the only surprise is that the sex study received $219,000 from the federal stimulus package.
And it is not the only sex-related research to receive taxpayer funding, according to the New York Post.
Researchers at Indiana University received $221,000 in stimulus money to examine “barriers to correct condom use.” The University of Illinois, Chicago was awarded $123,000 for a study evaluating “drug use as a sex enhancer.”
And the University of Maryland, Baltimore scored $28,000 from the taxpayers to study how crystal meth “enhances the motivation for female rat sexual behavior.”
Now I understand that the $219,000 that went to Syracuse University, the $123,000 to the University of Illinois and the $28,000 to the University of Maryland don’t amount to much in a federal stimulus package that added up to $787 billion.
But it’s not the amount of the awards that repulses. It’s that federal tax dollars are being used to underwrite research that almost certainly offends the moral sensibilities of the majority of Americans.
Comments
So alcohol has an effect on hooking-up --- NSS (no sh** Sherlock)..that's the moral outrage...spending money to reach a conclusion which is evident to anyone who went to college.
All those price tags for studies added together don't add up to the price we pay when Republicans are elected to office.
Now those are some wild sex studies that cost the tax payers a lot, plus we give the participants insurance for life.
It's a much better deal to stick with the college students.
But something being "evident" (or even "obvious") does not necessarily mean "true". Confirmation (and the possibility of falsification) is what scientific research is all about.
What offends me is that they are funding animal research. This research is misleading and inaccurate. A rat is not a human in so many, many ways. Anatomically, psychologically, socially, histologically. Results may or may not have any bearing to humans and *always* 'have to be confirmed' by more experiments on humans (which of course means more money to researchers).
Research into the sexual activity of human beings is one of the most lacking areas of knowledge due to the paradigm "the majority" of Americans adhere to. Americans aren't Puritans any longer, and understanding responsible human behavior versus irresponsible habitual sex with strangers, isn't immoral. It is something everyone with kids may want to consider, because the world is changing, and they're learning more and more at younger ages. There are already a lot of confused kids out there WITH kids.
Imagine we could determine which behaviors can stop a guy from getting rough? Or help girls avoid teen pregnancy?
I'll put it this way. You either realize the Bible is not to be taken literally, or the world really scares you. These "morals" create panics, grief, and death as the third leading cause of 18-25 year olds is suicide. Do you think that maybe we neglected to tell those kids something? It certainly isn't all related to this, but Jo, don't be an ostrich!
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