Sampling (statistics)/Example/Shere Hite - American sexology

Sampling Example: Shere Hite - ‘American Sexology’

Shere Hite conducted a famous survey of American male-female relations in the early 1980's.

Some of Hite’s findings about American women

Only 13% married for 2+years were still in love
70% married for 5+ years were having affairs...usually more for 'emotional closeness’ than sex
76% of these women did not feel guilty
87% had a closer female friend than husband
98% wanted “basic changes” to love relationships
84% were emotionally unsatisfied
95% reported emotional & psychological harassment from their men

Some of the critical comments "She goes in with prejudice & comes out with a statistic."

"The survey often seems merely to provide an occasion for the author’s own male-bashing diatribes."
"Hite uses statistics to bolster her opinion that American women are justifiably fed up with American men."

Hite's response rate & selection bias

100,000 questionnaires were sent to a variety of women’s groups (feminist organisations, church groups, garden clubs etc.)
4,500 replied (4.5% return rate)
“We get pretty nervous if respondents in our survey go under 70%. Respondents to surveys differ from nonrespondents in one important way: they go to the trouble of filling out what in this case was a very long, complicated, and personal questionnaire.” - Regina Herzog, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research

Lessons from Hite's male-female relations survey

Sample size – it's not how big, it's how representative
Objectivity – watch out for manipulating the survey questions and results interpretation to suit your personal conjectures