• Corpus ID: 18896189

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force the Problems with " Straight, Gay or Lying? "

@inproceedings{RiegerNationalGA,
  title={National Gay and Lesbian Task Force the Problems with " Straight, Gay or Lying? "},
  author={Gerulf Rieger and Meredith L Chivers and Bailey}
}

• G. Rieger, M. Chivers, Bailey
• Psychology

An article titled " Straight, Gay or Lying? " and written by Benedict Carey appeared on the front page of the New York Times " Science Times " section on July 5. 1 The article was featured on the newspaper's front page (A-1). There are numerous, serious problems with the article. The article purports to cover a new study on bisexuality in males that is set to appear in the academic journal Psychological Science. 2 The article concludes that the study " casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men. " The article (1) fails to note several serious and obvious questions about the study's methodology and underlying premises; (2) fails to report the many serious controversies that have plagued one of the study's authors in the past; (3) misstates some of the study's conclusions; and (4) fails to reflect the views of any leaders in the bisexual community. 1. The study has a number of methodological problems that the article fails to discuss, including: o The study, despite hollow caveats, focuses on sexual orientation being defined by one's physical arousal of the genitals while viewing short films depicting people having sex. The data charts, for example, purport to show " sexual arousal as a function of sexual orientation " (p. 581). Modern school of thought is that sexual orientation is defined by a combination of cognitive and physical responses, not just by whether one's genitals respond a certain way to pornography. The overarching theme of the article, however, is to accept the study's hypothesis that " arousal is orientation. " In its 1,500 words, the article quotes only one individual who refutes this definitional approach. o To determine " arousal, " the study relies entirely upon measuring male genital arousal with penile plethysmograph. 3 There is considerable literature that questions its validity as a scientific instrument. 4 There is no standardization of how to use it as a test, 5 including a uniform set of visual stimuli or scoring procedures, let alone agreement on what degree 3 Defined by the authors as the use of a " strain gauge that reflects changes in penile girth during erection. " " The penile plethysmograph (PPG) is a controversial type of plethysmograph that measures changes in blood flow in the penis in response to audio and/or visual stimuli. It is typically used to determine the (supposed) level of sexual …