Who needs a Cure for Cancer...

...when we can study This!

"Study links music, teen sex" (Associated Press, August 8th, 2006)

This study was everywhere on the news yesterday. Apparently, "Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found."

"Among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music."

"Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message about sex," said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in Pittsburgh. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said."

"We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful" about sexual decisions and may influence them to make decisions they regret, he said.

The study, based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants age 12 to 17, appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, being released today.

Most participants were virgins when they were first questioned in 2001. Follow-up interviews were done in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had influenced subsequent behavior."

Did you read that? 1,461 participants, phone interviews, over three years. And the results were let out yesterday so that's, um...two more years of looking at the results. Probably a team of, oh, ten, somewhat well paid people, a bunch of phones, some computers, a lab, all that study-like stuff...

My first and only thought when I heard And read about this was...Who Cares? Or as Mandy put it, "what exactly are we expected to do with this information?". Seriously. I mean not that there are better things for scientists to be studying like say...oh...leprousy? AIDS? Cancer? P-shaw. There are Other people taking care of That stuff...

On another, similar note (yet, oddly, more fun in my books)...

"Teens view oral sex as safer choice: study"

"About one in five ninth-graders in the U.S. say they've had oral sex, a finding that adults should keep in mind when counselling teens about sex, researchers say."

"The study, which appears in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, was designed to gauge teen perceptions of oral sex versus vaginal sex."

""Adolescents (also) believed that oral sex is more acceptable than vaginal sex for adolescents their own age in both dating and non-dating situations, oral sex is less of a threat to their values and beliefs, and more of their peers will have oral sex than vaginal sex in the near future."

Woo-Hoo, finally the answers I have been looking for! Now I can go and....um....nothing...I guess....yup, money well spent...


Other Studies of Note:

"All Hangover Cures Useless: Study..." - Reuters - December 22, 2005
"Study finds left-handers don't die earlier" - AP - May 28, 1998
"Study Finds Worst Performance in Conservative Christian Schools" - New York Times - July 15, 2006
"Sex Speeds Up Evolution, Study Finds" - National Geographic News - March 30, 2005
"Study Finds Direct Link Between Misinformation and Public Misconception" - PIPA - October 2, 2003
"Study finds Wal-Mart contributes to poverty" - St. Louis Business Journal - May 17, 2006
"Bees can recognize human faces, study finds" - World Science - December 9, 2005



A honeybee inspects a photograph of a face in preparation for a landing. (Courtesy the Journal of Experimental Biology)



I think this officially puts Scientists on my "List of People I Love"...