From: wchenaul@cyclone.mitre.org (William W. Chenault)
Subject: Re: Morality- Alarming results
Organization: Mitre Corporation, McLean, VA
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 20:57:36 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.183105.14703@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> tlode@nyx.cs.du.edu (trygve lode) writes:
>In article <3781@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> gswst@gl.pitt.edu (Gary S Wachs) writes:
>>Hey folks,
>>
>> I read somewhere, can't remember where, about the results of a morality
>>questionaire.  A few thousand adult males in an urban area were polled,
>>if I remember correctly.  Two particularly disappointing points that stuck in
>>my head were the following questions:
>>
>> 1. Have you ever seriously considered raping a woman?
>>     the "Yes"'s were somewhere in the 10-15% area
>>
>> 2. Do you think you could ever actually rape a woman if you were
>>    given assurance that you could not get caught?
>>     the "Yes"'s skyrocketed to somewhere in the 50-70% area this time.
>>
>>If this is accurate, then it seems Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it-no one
>>saw me do it-you can't prove a thing" attitude is more than just a popular
>>form of entertainment - it's a current attitude in the country.
>>Any ideas on what we can do about this?


[Tygrave's post deleted, not because it didn't have valid points to make
 but because I wished to respond to the origional article]

	I agree that the figures are shocking, especially if the other
numbers on this thread are true (about 50% yes for the first question,
80-90% yes on the second question).  I am curious about the actual poll
though.  Is the survey conducted with just males in one urban area, or all
across the USA, and what techniques were used to make sure the sample is
valid?  (I'm not trying to pick nits with the survey, survey's are useful
tools, and I'm interested in this one, and want to make sure I understand
what the survey really says).

	Another question I have is what is the exact wording of the questions?
In particular, I would like to know the wording of the second question.  
Hypothetical questions should be worded with care, and I believe the wording
of the second question, in particular the word "could", presupposes a desire
to rape a woman, so a man trying to imagine himself in the hypothetical
situation may be much more likely to imagine himself wanting, and thus able,
to rape a woman.  If the question read "would" (changing just one letter),
then I would expect the percentage of "yes" answers to drop below the level
it is at for a "could" question.  This would be because without the imagined
desire to rape a woman that (I believe) the second hypothetical question has
build in to it, men who didn't have that desire in actuality wouldn't be 
tempted to imagine it, and thus tempted to answer "yes."

	I have absolutely no statistical evidence to back up this point,
and I don't know the origional wording of the question either (I just asked
for the information).  Even if my point is true, the ability of maybe 80-90%
(or perhaps just 50%) to imagine themselves having a desire to rape a woman
and imagine themselves acting on that desire says something serious about
the male population; I just want to make sure that attention is brought to
this point to make sure everyone understands exactly what it is that the
survey is saying.  I do not wish to belittle the survey, which may have valid
things to teach us about ourselves regardless of the exact wording.

Wild Bill

Sorry Rob, its another long post without even a sig.