Sex and Morality in the U.S.: An Empirical Enquiry under the Auspices of the Kinsey Institute.

Abstract

This book presents the major findings from a national survey of American sexual norms and experiences. The survey was conducted in 1970 under the auspices of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University and is based on interviews with more than 3000 adults. The authors incorporate the data and interpretations from the interviews in this volume. SEX AND MORALITY IN THE US describes the degree to which survey respondents judged prostitution masturbation premarital sex extramarital sex and homosexuality to be morally right or wrong; it then examines the extent to which these judgments were altered by sexual experiences reported in self-administered questionnaires and by respondents personal social and demographic characteristics. The authors rely heavily on the statistics of path analysis explaining variations in their respondents sexual norms their reported involvement in premarital sex their perception of changes in sexual norms and the formal and informal sanctions they would like to see applied to violators of sexual norms. The book reminds the reader of how important norms are in comprehending human conduct. It also draws attention to the question of how societys members come to know the prevailing norms. One of the books principal contributions is that it calls into question whether public awareness of the prevailing state of morality is an actual reflection of the actual state of affairs. In the 1960s and 1970s it was widely believed that American society was experiencing a sexual revolution. However the authors stress the absence of empirical evidence from their survey suggesting that a major change in sexual morals had taken place. Prevailing norms governing sexual conduct were mistakenly believed by many to be far more liberal than they really were. This radical bias in public perception was facilitated by the change in legal norms that allowed for increasing explicitness in the handling of sexual matters in the arts and mass media. It was also greatly strengthened by well-publicized studies of sexual behavior based on samples of individuals that were not truly representative of the population. No attempt has been made to assess the books findings and analysis in light of more recent research. It is published as it was prepared and written in the late 1970s.