Sunday, March 21, 2021

What predicts virginity among young American men?

 According to the General Social Survey, 28% of American men under 30 report not having sex since they turned 18. I was baffled by that and wanted to know what predicts virginity among young men. 

Using General Social Survey data, I looked at a long list of possible predictors but found that most factors are unrelated. As you can see below, being younger predicts virginity (not surprisingly). More educated men are more likely to be virgins which cuts against the claim that high-status men are the ones who get sex. (Income and job prestige were not predictive.) 

Never going to bars and not watching an X-rated film in the past year predicted virginity. So porn doesn't look like a substitute for sex: sexually active men are more likely to watch porn. Perhaps celibate men tend to have lower levels of testosterone? Men who go to bars are more likely to have sex, so men who make an effort or who are more social are more likely to have sex. 

The GSS doesn't have many personality-type questions, so I wasn't able to look at traits like introversion or social awkwardness, but if you've got other ideas for unconventional variables, let me know. 

Tuesday, March 02, 2021

Which white groups have noticeably low IQs?

To answer this question, I calculated mean IQs for all self-described whites by the country they said their ancestors came from. Only people born in the US are included since immigrants are at a disadvantage on a vocabulary test (the measure of IQ used here). Here are the results:

Mean IQ

Africa  93.4
Mexico  90.0
Puerto Rico  93.2
Spain  97.2
American Indian  94.7
India  95.8
Other Spanish  95.9
American only  90.4

It looks like many of these people are racially mixed. They label themselves as white but often have some non-white ancestry. The mixed groups that do not have low mean IQs are self-described whites whose ancestors came from east Asian countries--Japan, China, or the Philippines. 

UPDATE: The mean IQ for self-described whites whose ancestors are from east Asia is 99.8. 



 

Are gun owners mentally ill?

  Some anti-gun people think owning a gun is a sign of some kind of mental abnormality. According to General Social Survey data, gun owners ...