Volunteer bias in human sexuality research: Evidence for both sexuality and personality differences in males

Abstract

The extent to which personality, social behavior, and sexuality differed in undergraduate males under two different types of recruitment, volunteer and nonvolunteer, was investigated. Nonvolunteers (N = 160) were ostensibly recruited for a study on personality, and volunteers (N = 204) were overtly recruited for a study on human sexuality. Both samples completed the same personality, social behavior, and sexuality questionnaires. Volunteers were found to be more sexually experienced, more interested in sexual variety, and more erotophilic than the nonvolunteers. In addition and contrary to most prior research, the volunteer and nonvolunteer samples also differed in personality and social behavior, with the volunteers being higher in sensation seeking and lower on measures of social conformity and rule-following behavior than the nonvolunteers. Results extend prior research suggesting limits to the generalizability of some human sexuality research.

Assessment of Sexual Behavior, Sexual Attitudes, and Sexual Risk in Sweden (1989–2003)

“…The fact that the participation rate was not uniform and differed among sociodemographic groups throughout the study period is rather disturbing, as the attitudes and sexual behavior of the non-responders may have differed from those of the responders. It has been shown in other studies that participants in national sexuality surveys had higher socioeconomic status, were better educated, were more sexually experienced, and had less conservative sexual attitudes than non-participants (Bogaert, 1996;Purdie, Dunne, Boyle, Cook, & Najman, 2002); however, this bias probably does not seriously compromise population estimates (Dunne et al, 1997). It has been asserted in previous investigtions that researchers generally overestimate participation effects in sex research and exaggerate the threat that questions on sexual behavior engender (Johnson & Delamater, 1976).…”

Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Sex and Romance in Asexuals

“…As much of the recruitment took place by distributing the AIS, participants were aware of the sexual nature of the study before participating. Previous studies have shown a volunteer bias in participation in sexualityrelated studies, with volunteers having more experience with sex (Bogaert, 1996;Strassberg & Lowe, 1995;Wiederman, 1999), and less traditional attitudes toward sex (Dunne et al, 1997;Wiederman, 1999) than non-volunteers. Consequently, it is possible that the control group had different attitudes toward sex than the general population, which may have exaggerated differences between groups.…”

Predictors of Sexual Distress in Women with Desire and Arousal Difficulties: Distinguishing Between Personal, Partner, and Interpersonal Distress

“…However, we acknowledge that even with these efforts, possible self-selection biases remain a concern and may impact the representativeness of the sample and the generalizability of the results. Previous research has shown that volunteers for sexuality-related studies tend to have a more positive attitude towards their own sexuality and more sexual experience than non-volunteers (e.g., see 46,47 ). However, studies have also found that volunteers for sex research are not distinguishable from non-volunteers on most general personality dimensions (e.g., 47 ).…”