Sex and the UW student.

Biochemistry student Charlie Gorichanaz conducted a fairly extensive survey of University of Wisconsin-Madison students. He got 3,190 responses (after emailing surveys to 38,812 students). There's lots of background on the methodology and many details and charts at the link. I'll just highlight a few things that seemed particularly interesting to me:

Gender preferences

Students were asked separately to which genders they are sexually and emotionally attracted....

Sexual attraction: Males were more likely to characterize their sexual attractions at the extreme ends of the spectrum. About 81.6 percent of males said they are completely straight with no exceptions, compared to 68.1 percent of females. Surprisingly, males were more than seven times as likely as females to say they are completely gay, with 3.1 percent versus 0.4 percent. Females were more than twice as likely as males to be at least somewhat bisexual, with 30.9 percent of females and 14.4 percent of males ranking somewhere between totally straight and totally gay. For sexual attraction, 17.5 percent of males said they were at least sometimes attracted to males, and 31.4 percent of females said they were at least sometimes attracted to females....

Emotional attraction: Females were a little more likely to be emotionally rather than sexually attracted to either gender at times, and males were more than twice as likely to be at times attracted to both genders emotionally. For emotional attraction, 37.4 percent of males said they were at least sometimes attracted to males, and 40.9 percent of females said they were at least sometimes attracted to females....

Here's a chart. [Chart #6.] I'm amused at the expression "at least two thirds straight." Time for some new slang!

There are some interesting questions about what students think is "wrong" — as summarized in these pie charts.  For example, is it wrong to have sex when you're not cheating on anyone but the other person is?

... 63.3 percent of respondents said it is wrong to take part in sexual acts with someone you know to be in a monogamous relationship, 24.8 percent said it is too complicated to answer and 2.2 percent were not sure. That leaves 9.7 percent who said being a party to someone else’s cheating is not wrong.

I'm impressed by how many people think this is wrong. But we're not surveying them at the point when they are making a decision whether or  not to do something they are intensely in the mood to do. I imagine human self-deception is at its height over this particular point of morality. But, at least, coolly examined, a big majority knows it's just wrong. The 24.8% "It's complicated" group deserve some credit for honesty. It gets exquisitely complicated when you're looking to justify your own behavior. But it's good to get the clear reading: It's wrong! ... Isn't it? What if.... It's wrong!