This survey is for couples who have or are looking to invite a third person for a threesome.
This is an older article from 2000 and it remains one of my favorite. It examines the characteristics of swingers and compares them to characteristics of the general population. Granted swinging covers many other sexual practices beyond having a threesome and it generally involves people who have incorporated in their sexual practices. Nonetheless it remains one of my favorites since it highlights the fact the some of the people you would least expect to be interested in having a threesome are the ones having it and it challenges the stereotype of a middle-aged liberal agnostic / atheist as the ones who are swinging.
As with any article relating to threesomes and alternative sexual practices there are always biases. Some of the biases come from the type of research being done. In this article an online survey was done, which means there may be some duplication even though attempts were made to eliminate duplicate answers and there are always issues regarding using online resources. Such as issues with coding, any network issues, any hardware issues, and reasons why people may start the survey then abandon it. Finally there are issues with they type of research being done. When surveys are done there is a tendency for people to provide socially acceptable answers and to view the question in the most positive light for themselves. Plus depending on how the questions are written, it will influence the way the individual responds. Given very little research is done in area it is difficult to know how representative it is.
Having read the article, I do not believe, there are obvious biases that have influenced the results. Though, I do question the results show swingers tend to slightly more religious. As an author, I know there is a public person we all have that we maintain and then
there is a private persona that our partner is only that sees
it. Having lived in a religious and politically conservative state for over two decades, I know there is a disconnect between religion and personal beliefs, especially amongst Christians. If there was congruency between faith and religion then the state I lived in would have a nearly non-exist DWI rate along (many in its penitentiary are serving time for DWI offenses), not being a national leader in arrests for transport for a well known illegal drug (it is not ‘pot’ a lot harsher) and finding someone for a threesome would be much difficult. So, this author is not disagreeing with some of the findings and it may be this survey captured a shift in the swinging population; however, it is difficult to know if this is a bias.
As an author I am interested in information that objectively looks at sex and threesomes. Surveys are a great way to ask questions, to methodically get information and to report it in consistent way. It gives a snapshot of a population at a particular point in time and it provides an excellent resource for comparison.
A drawback to a survey is a question asked can be influenced by the personal views of the person drafting the questions, people selected may not be representative of the population and generalizations may not always be possible. Meaning, the results reported may not be a true representation of the overall population. Nonetheless this study, in particular, is interesting because the threesome rate for Canadians is higher than Americans and the number of partners Canadian women have, in some instances, exceeds males.
This is a quick read and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did.