tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/social-surveys-69033/articlesSocial surveys – The Conversation2023-01-12T13:22:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1972702023-01-12T13:22:17Z2023-01-12T13:22:17ZUS birth rates are at record lows – even though the number of kids most Americans say they want has held steady<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504125/original/file-20230111-17-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=605%2C401%2C4607%2C3396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More one-and-done families influence the overall birth rate.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-multi-ethnic-parents-kissing-son-royalty-free-image/764783339">Maskot via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Birth rates are falling in the U.S. After the highs of the Baby Boom in the mid-20th century and the lows of the Baby Bust in the 1970s, birth rates were relatively stable for nearly 50 years. But during the Great Recession, from 2007-2009, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-17.pdf">birth rates declined sharply</a> – and they’ve kept falling. In 2007, average birth rates were right around 2 children per woman. By 2021, levels had dropped more than 20%, close to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/birth-rates-science-coronavirus-pandemic-health-d51571bda4aa02eafdd42265912f1202">lowest level in a century</a>. Why? </p>
<p>Is this decline because, as some suggest, young people <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/adoption-highest-forms-love-pope-francis-says-rcna11065">aren’t interested in having children</a>? Or are people facing increasing barriers to becoming parents?</p>
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<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yEWD08QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">We are demographers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2c_rF_IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">who study</a> how people make plans for having kids and whether they are able to carry out those intentions.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12535">In a recent study</a>, we analyzed how changes in childbearing goals may have contributed to recent declines in birth rates in the United States. Our analysis found that most young people still plan to become parents but are delaying childbearing.</p>
<h2>Digging into the demographic data</h2>
<p>We were interested in whether people have changed their plans for childbearing over the past few decades. And we knew from other research that the way people think about having children changes as they get older and their circumstances change. Some people initially think they’ll have children, then gradually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0739-7">change their views over time</a>, perhaps because they don’t meet the right partner or because they work in demanding fields. Others don’t expect to have children at one point but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12402">later find themselves desiring to have children</a> or, sometimes, unexpectedly pregnant. </p>
<p>So we needed to analyze both changes over time – comparing young people now to those in the past – and changes across the life course – comparing a group of people at different ages. No single data set contains enough information to make both of those comparisons, so we combined information from multiple surveys. </p>
<p>Since the 1970s, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/index.htm">National Surveys of Family Growth</a>, a federal survey run by the National Centers for Health Statistics, have been asking people about their childbearing goals and behaviors. The survey doesn’t collect data from the same people over time, but it provides a snapshot of the U.S. population about every five years.</p>
<p>Using multiple rounds of the survey, we are able to track what’s happening, on average, among people born around the same time – what demographers call a “cohort” – as they pass through their childbearing years.</p>
<p>For this study, we looked at 13 cohorts of women and 10 cohorts of men born between the 1960s and the 2000s. We followed these cohorts to track whether members intended to have any children and the average number of children they intended, starting at age 15 and going up to the most recent data collected through 2019.</p>
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<p>We found remarkable consistency in childbearing goals across cohorts. For example, if we look at teenage girls in the 1980s – the cohort born in 1965-69 – they planned to have 2.2 children on average. Among the same age group in the early 21st century – the cohort born in 1995-1999 – girls intended to have 2.1 children on average. Slightly more young people plan to have no children now than 30 years ago, but still, the vast majority of U.S. young adults plan to have kids: about 88% of teenage girls and 89% of teenage boys.</p>
<p>We also found that as they themselves get older, people plan to have fewer children – but not by much. This pattern was also pretty consistent across cohorts. Among those born in 1975-79, for instance, men and women when they were age 20-24 planned to have an average of 2.3 and 2.5 children, respectively. These averages fell slightly, to 2.1 children for men and 2.2 children for women, by the time respondents were 35-39. Still, overwhelmingly, most Americans plan to have children, and the average intended number of children is right around 2. </p>
<p>So, if childbearing goals haven’t changed much, why are birth rates declining?</p>
<h2>What keeps people from their target family size?</h2>
<p>Our study can’t directly address why birth rates are going down, but we can propose some explanations based on other research. </p>
<p>In part, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.024">this decline is good news</a>. There are fewer unintended births than there were 30 years ago, a decrease linked to increasing use of effective contraceptive methods like IUDs and implants and improved insurance coverage from the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>Compared with earlier eras, people today start having their children later. These delays also contribute to declining birth rates: Because people start later, they have less time to meet their childbearing goals before they reach biological or social age limits for having kids. As people wait longer to start having children, they are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.0.0073">more likely to change their minds about parenting</a>.</p>
<p>But why are people getting a later start on having kids? We hypothesize that Americans see parenthood as harder to manage than they might have in the past. </p>
<p>Although the U.S. economy overall <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/great-recession-great-recovery.htm">recovered after the Great Recession</a>, many young people, in particular, feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9548-1">uncertain about their ability to achieve</a> some of the things they see as necessary for having children – including a good job, a stable relationship and safe, affordable housing. </p>
<p>At the same time, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0146-4">costs of raising children</a> – from child care and housing to <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_330.10.asp">college education</a> – are rising. And parents may feel more pressure to live up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy107">high-intensive parenting standards</a> and prepare their children for an <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520278103/motherload">uncertain world</a>. </p>
<p>And while our data doesn’t cover the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased feelings of instability by exposing the lack of support for American parents.</p>
<p>For many parents and would-be parents, the “right time” to have a child, or have another child, may feel increasingly out of reach – no matter their ideal family size.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hayford receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute on Aging. She is affiliated with the American Sociological Association and the Population Association of America. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Benjamin Guzzo receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is affiliated with the Population Association of America, the American Sociological Association, the National Council on Family Relations, and the Council on Contemporary Families. </span></em></p>Childbearing goals have remained remarkably consistent over the decades. What has changed is when people start their families and how many kids they end up having.Sarah Hayford, Professor of Sociology; Director, Institute for Population Research, The Ohio State UniversityKaren Benjamin Guzzo, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489912020-11-11T19:19:42Z2020-11-11T19:19:42ZPandemic widens gap between government and Australians’ view of education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368770/original/file-20201111-17-jbe33f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5591%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic is changing Australians’ view of public education, our analysis of <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org">Australian Leadership Index (ALI)</a> data shows. In contrast to the government’s instrumental view of education, with its focus on producing “<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">job-ready graduates</a>”, the public now takes a wider view of education as a <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good">public good</a>.</p>
<p>Public education, such as public schools and universities, is understood as serving the interests of the many, not the few. And the importance of ethics and accountability has only become more pronounced throughout the pandemic.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-flaws-in-job-ready-graduates-package-will-add-to-the-turmoil-in-australian-higher-education-147740">3 flaws in Job-Ready Graduates package will add to the turmoil in Australian higher education</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org">Australian Leadership Index</a> has tracked <a href="https://theconversation.com/blunders-aside-most-australians-believe-state-premiers-have-been-effective-leaders-during-pandemic-147998">public perceptions of leadership</a> across a number of sectors, including public education, since 2018. We analysed ALI scores for public education through three periods – before COVID, first wave and second wave. </p>
<h2>An intensifying debate about education</h2>
<p>Since the pandemic began, debate about the role of education and its contribution to the public good has intensified. Universities have been at the centre of this debate.</p>
<p>Between January and March, before COVID-19 hit our shores, universities were in the public spotlight due to their <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-universities-offer-fee-discounts-for-chinese-students-affected-by-coronavirus-20200227-p544us.html">reliance on international student fees</a>.</p>
<p>In this period, the <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org/about/">ALI score</a> (our indexed measure of leadership) for public education dipped into the negative (-2) for the first time since we began tracking in September 2018.</p>
<p>During the first wave of COVID-19 (March-June), public discourse focused on the role of universities in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/27/covid-vaccine-uk-oxford-university-astrazeneca-works-in-all-ages-trials-suggest">finding a vaccine</a>. At the same time, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">exclusion of universities from the JobKeeper program</a> forced them into cost-cutting, with implications for <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">research output</a>. More recently, news of <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">wage theft in universities</a> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-05/university-of-melbourne-exposed-in-decade-long-wage-theft-case/12519588"> hit the headlines</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks</a>
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<p>Despite these challenges, the ALI score for education recovered strongly. It hit a peak (+19) in the June quarter and stabilised in the September quarter (+15). </p>
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<h2>Education and the public good</h2>
<p>Over the past few months, the federal government has brought in sweeping changes intended to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The stated aim is to produce “<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-flaws-in-job-ready-graduates-package-will-add-to-the-turmoil-in-australian-higher-education-147740">job-ready graduates</a>” to fuel economic recovery. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses</a>
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<p>By contrast, our data show the Australian public takes a wider view of education. </p>
<p>Drawing on nationally representative surveys from September 2018 to September 2020, we statistically modelled how nine different factors have influenced public perceptions of leadership in education institutions.</p>
<p>We then plotted the importance of each factor (vertical axis) against the proportion of Australians who agree education is performing well on that factor (horizontal axis). The results show which factors are important in driving perceptions of education leadership, and also how the sector performs against them. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Vertical axis shows results of analysis that models impact of each of nine drivers on perceptions of leadership for the greater good. Horizontal axis shows proportion of Australians who believe education institutions show leadership for the greater good to a ‘fairly large’ or ‘extremely large’ extent. Mid points on each axis represent the average importance/performance across the nine drivers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Leadership Index</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Notably, Australians see accountability, ethicality and creating social value as highly important for education institutions. The sector performs well against these factors. </p>
<p>By contrast, responsiveness to the needs of society and creating economic value are also important, but the sector underperforms against these factors. </p>
<p>In short, Australians believe that <em>how</em> public education creates value – through demonstrable commitments to ethics and accountability – is as important as the <em>type</em> of value it creates. This reflects an understanding that serving the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-interests-why-defining-the-public-interest-is-such-a-challenge-84278">public interest</a> is as much about process as it is about outcome. </p>
<p>Overall, these results suggests a marked discrepancy between how the government and Australians view public education.</p>
<h2>How views changed through the pandemic</h2>
<p>Our data (click on the table to enlarge it) show how Australians’ view of public education changed through the course of the pandemic. </p>
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<p>In the period before COVID (January-March), the sector’s apparent accountability, responsiveness to society, and a focus on economic value creation had the most influence on perceptions of the sector’s leadership. </p>
<p>In the first wave (April-June), ethics and balancing the needs of different groups became more important. Accountability, economic value creation and responsiveness to societal needs were also important. Performance scores improved across all five factors. </p>
<p>This possibly reflects the optimistic discourse around vaccine research, producing job-ready graduates and an element of sympathy for universities, as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/universities-sound-alarm-after-denied-greater-access-to-wage-subsidy-20200406-p54hhc.html">university staff</a> lost their jobs and <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/government-attitude-may-risk-international-student-sector-20200403-p54gxf">international students</a> were <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-out-of-5-international-students-are-still-in-australia-how-we-treat-them-will-have-consequences-145099">left to fend for themselves</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-one-would-even-know-if-i-had-died-in-my-room-coronavirus-leaves-international-students-in-dire-straits-144128">'No one would even know if I had died in my room': coronavirus leaves international students in dire straits</a>
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<p>In the second wave (July-September), the focus shifted away from the sector’s economic contributions and its responsiveness to society. Instead, ethics, accountability and balancing the needs of different groups became most important. </p>
<p>Performance scores for balancing the needs of different groups decreased. This possibly reflects the changes to tertiary education funding, which triggered backlash from both domestic and international students.</p>
<h2>Rethinking the role of universities</h2>
<p>Australians have important decisions to make on the role of public education. Rather than positioning public education and universities as a panacea for economic recovery, a wider view is required. </p>
<p>Universities are uniquely positioned to serve the public good. The purpose of education leadership itself has been described as being “<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429261947">as and for public good</a>”. This insight is reflected in the actions of university benefactors, who are motivated by a belief in the <a href="https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/10/its-in-the-national-interest-to-fund-research.html/">public good that only universities can create</a>.</p>
<p>Although philanthropic support is vital, it is in the national interest to properly fund universities to enable them to serve and enhance the public good as only universities can.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Wheeler has engaged in paid and pro-bono consulting and research relating to issues of applied ethics and gender equality (e.g., Our Watch, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, VicHealth). She has previously worked for research centres that receive funding from several partner organisations in the private and public sector, including from the Victorian Government. She receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Pallant receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Wilson receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Colin Bednall receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index. He is a Fellow of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vlad Demsar receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p>The way in which Australians think about leadership in the education sector has changed throughout the pandemic. It’s seen as a public good, with ethics and accountability gaining in importance.Melissa A. Wheeler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyJason Pallant, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologySamuel Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Swinburne University of TechnologyTimothy Colin Bednall, Senior Lecturer in Management, Swinburne University of TechnologyVlad Demsar, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216792019-08-27T12:03:26Z2019-08-27T12:03:26ZHow male ‘porn superfans’ really view women<p>In 2007, the pornography website Pornhub averaged <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/10-years">1 million visits per day</a>. By 2018 this had increased to <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2018-year-in-review">92 million visits per day</a> – or 33.5 billion views over the course of a year.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=VCNddVoAAAAJ&hl=en">interdisciplinary</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O8G0gfEAAAAJ&hl=en">group</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qQbNgYwAAAAJ&hl=en">of</a> “<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tr1vK5kAAAAJ&hl=en">sexademics</a>,” we’re interested in porn’s cultural role and impact. A common question we hear is whether this growth in porn consumption is good or bad for society.</p>
<p>Of course, the honest-but-unsatisfying answer is: It depends. But sometimes studying various aspects of porn consumption can change the way we think about it. </p>
<p>You might have heard, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Pornland.html?id=x9CMJ_zY4WUC">that porn fuels misogynistic attitudes and sexual violence</a>.</p>
<p>If this were the case, you would think that people who consumed a lot of porn would hold particularly negative views towards women.</p>
<p>So we decided <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12506">to study</a> a group of men whom we’ve dubbed “porn superfans” – those who are so enthusiastic about porn that they’ll attend the <a href="https://adultentertainmentexpo.com/">AVN Adult Entertainment Expo</a> in Las Vegas. We wanted to compare their attitudes about gender equality to those of everyday Americans.</p>
<h2>Profiling the superfans</h2>
<p>Our study was inspired, in part, by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/05/24/the-case-for-banning-pornography/">journalists</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/09/health/arizona-porn-public-health/index.html">politicians</a> who have said that porn consumption is at epidemic levels – so much so that it constitutes a public health crisis. </p>
<p>They write and speak of the perils of porn addiction and objectification, how porn encourages “hatred of women” and “sexual toxicity.”</p>
<p>Would this play out in the results of our study?</p>
<p>The 294 expo attendees we surveyed certainly differed from the general population in a number of ways.</p>
<p>Their average age was 44 years old. Almost half – 47.3% – indicated that they watched porn “less than once a day, but more than once a week.” Over one-third – 36.1% – indicated they watch porn “every day.” In other words, over 80% of the attendees in our sample watched porn multiple times a week. Only 34.1% of them were married, but they were highly educated: 60.5% had a college degree or higher.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289466/original/file-20190826-8845-7ceu0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A scene from the 2017 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Maginn</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We compared these results to the results from the <a href="http://www.gss.norc.org/About-The-GSS">General Social Survey</a>, a nationally representative survey conducted every couple of years that charts social trends.</p>
<p>This survey only asks whether people have seen an X-rated movie in the last year, and 37.6% of the men indicated that they had. Just over half of the men in the General Social Survey sample were married, while just 28.7% of them had a college degree or higher.</p>
<h2>Misogyny unmasked?</h2>
<p>But we were most interested in comparing the gender attitudes of each group. So we asked the expo attendees the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with four statements from the General Social Survey:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work.”</p></li>
<li><p>“Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than are most women.”</p></li>
<li><p>“It is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family.”</p></li>
<li><p>“Because of past discrimination, employers should make special efforts to hire and promote qualified women.”</p></li>
</ol>
<p>After parsing the results, we discovered that male porn superfans actually expressed more progressive attitudes towards gender equality on two of the questions. For two others, they indicated just as progressive – or, said another way, just as sexist – attitudes as the general population.</p>
<p>Over 90% of porn superfans – compared to just over 70% of the GSS sample – agreed that working mothers can have just as warm and secure relationships with their children than non-working mothers. </p>
<p>For the statement that men and women should hold traditional gender roles within a family, 80% of porn superfans disagreed. Nationally, 73% percent of respondents disagree with this statement.</p>
<p>A similar proportion – 80% – of AVN Expo attendees and General Social Survey respondents disagreed with the statement that men, rather than women, were more emotionally suited for politics.</p>
<p>Although a majority of porn superfans and General Social Survey respondents – 72.4% and 74.5%, respectively – agreed that women, due to past discrimination, should get special preference in the workplace, this was the least supported statement we tested. Notably, however, this level of support is higher than a recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/247046/americans-support-affirmative-action-programs-rises.aspx">national poll</a> indicating that 65% of Americans support affirmative action for women.</p>
<h2>Porn crisis or moral panic?</h2>
<p>These findings challenge what porn scholars call the “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0038038516629909">negative effects paradigm</a>,” which sees porn as an inherently bad thing that cultivates harmful attitudes.</p>
<p>Our survey isn’t the only one that upends this way of thinking. A 2016 study based on General Social Survey data found that male porn consumers held <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2015.1023427">more egalitarian views</a> on women in position of power, women working outside the home, and abortion than those who didn’t view porn.</p>
<p>And while most porn is produced and consumed by men, a growing number of women – straight and LGBTQ – are <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feminist-Porn-Book-Tristan-Taormino/dp/155861818X#reader_155861818X">producing porn</a> and consuming different <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319691336">genres of porn</a>, a trend that’s largely been ignored.</p>
<p>For now, it’s probably best to pump the brakes on the idea that pornography causes negative attitudes toward women. The evidence just isn’t there, and much of today’s rhetoric about pornography <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2018.1435400">seems to be more of a moral panic than public health crisis</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul J. Maginn is a Board Member of Sexual Health Quarters (formerly Family Planning WA), an independent non-profit organisation based in Perth, Western Australia, that provides specialist services in sexual health and reproductive services. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aleta Baldwin receives funding from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Society for Family Planning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Brents has received funding from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and from the City of Las Vegas for other projects. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Jackson receives funding from her college to support other research projects. She formerly sat for one year on the board of the Red Umbrella Project, a sex worker rights organization in NYC.</span></em></p>There’s a strand of radical feminist thought that claims porn causes misogyny. So four researchers decided to test this idea – and descended on a porn expo to study the beliefs of the male attendees.Paul J. Maginn, Associate Professor of Urban/Regional Planning, The University of Western AustraliaAleta Baldwin, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Health and Nutrition , The University of Texas at San AntonioBarb Brents, Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Las VegasCrystal A. Jackson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal JusticeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143692019-04-07T19:52:09Z2019-04-07T19:52:09ZWhat the data say about discrimination and tolerance in New Zealand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267717/original/file-20190404-123397-14zdy0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C98%2C2968%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An analysis of population statistics shows that most New Zealanders, from any groups, don't report experiencing intolerance or discrimination.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the Christchurch mosque shootings, there has been considerable discussion of intolerance and experiences of discrimination in New Zealand.</p>
<p>For example, Anjum Rahman, a spokesperson for the Islamic Women’s Council, has expressed concerns about <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/384911/islamic-women-s-council-repeatedly-lobbied-to-stem-discrimination">rising levels of discrimination</a> against the Muslim community. </p>
<p>This discussion has been driven by specific examples of discrimination or intolerance. Such anecdotes clearly prove wrong the idea that New Zealand is free of discrimination or intolerance, but they provide no evidence of societal prevalence of such experiences and attitudes. </p>
<p>My aim here is to consider data on the occurrence of discrimination and the extent of tolerance across New Zealand society, in aggregate and by different groups. This allows some generalisable conclusions about what we do and don’t know. </p>
<h2>Experiences of discrimination</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/">Stats NZ</a>’s most recent <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/help-with-surveys/list-of-stats-nz-surveys/information-about-the-new-zealand-general-social-survey-gss/">General Social Survey</a> (collected between April 2016 and April 2017) allows a consideration of local discrimination and tolerance. It uses an officially collected and statistically representative population sample. It also enables an analysis by subgroups defined by migrant status, main ethnic category and region.</p>
<p>Aggregating across all experiences of discrimination (e.g. by ethnicity, age, gender, dress, language, religion, sexual orientation etc), and hence maximising reported discrimination, most New Zealanders (83.1%) report no discrimination in the previous year. There is little difference in reported discrimination between New Zealand-born people (83.5% report no discrimination) and long-term migrants (83.7%). However, while a large majority of recent migrants (74.3%) report no discrimination, the figure was smaller. </p>
<p>Across all major ethnic categories, the large majority report no discrimination. Of New Zealand Europeans, 85.4% report no discrimination. Rates for Pacific (80.1%), Māori (74.4%) and Asian New Zealanders (73.4%) are lower, but still high. </p>
<p>In terms of regional differences, 83.1% of Cantabrians (where Christchurch is) report no discrimination, identical to New Zealand-wide rates. On this evidence, Canterbury is not a local hotbed of discrimination.</p>
<p>How big are the observed difference in discrimination between groups reported above? The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03610911003650383">standard social science approach</a> divides population differences into “small”, “medium” and “large”. On the basis of this division, the most elevated experiences of discrimination experienced by ethnic minorities and recent migrants are closest to small in size. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-religious-vilification-laws-protect-religious-freedoms-62283">Can religious vilification laws protect religious freedoms?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tolerance of ethnic and religious diversity</h2>
<p>In terms of tolerance, the large majority of New Zealanders are comfortable or very comfortable with a neighbour with a different religion (87.4%). They feel the same comfort regarding a neighbour from a different ethnic group (88.7%). </p>
<p>The one case where only a small majority express comfort involves a neighbour with a mental illness. Only 53.2% of people are very comfortable or comfortable here. </p>
<p>There are no notable differences in tolerance by migrant status, ethnic category or region. Hence, with the exception of the mentally ill, all groups share a majority value of out-group tolerance, and harbour a similar small share of the intolerant.</p>
<p>There is no official data on discrimination experienced by Muslim New Zealanders compared to other groups. Equally, there is no official data on Muslim tolerance of other ethnic and religious groups as neighbours. </p>
<p>However, there is information from the <a href="https://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-research/research-groups/new-zealand-attitudes-and-values-study.html">New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study</a> on negative attitudes, in the form of reported anger. People report on a 1 to 7 scale, where 1 is “No anger”, 4 is “Neutral”, and 7 is “Anger”. People report on anger towards several main ethnic categories, as well as Muslims, a religious group. In terms of the sampling approach, these data are less well suited for answering population questions than the official Statistics New Zealand data.</p>
<p>Bearing this caveat in mind, the survey shows a broad lack of out-group negativity. Most societal responses fall between “No anger” and “Neutral”. For example, 91.3% of non-Pacific people report “No anger” to “Neutral” attitudes towards Pacific people. Comparable out-group figures for Asians are 90.3%, for New Zealand Europeans 87.3% and for Māori 86.0%. </p>
<p>All these figures are basically identical. For Muslims the number is slightly lower at 81.9%. But in all cases the share of society in the “No anger” to “Neutral” zone is a large majority. Equally, differences between Muslims and ethnic groups are small. </p>
<p>Unfortunately there are no other religious groups where the anger question is asked. This means there is no benchmark to compare out-group anger towards Muslims. Data on anger towards Evangelical Christians, Hindus or Jews are not collected.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-charlottesville-how-we-define-tolerance-becomes-a-key-question-83793">After Charlottesville, how we define tolerance becomes a key question</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While discrimination experienced by minority groups, defined by migrant status and ethnic category, clearly exists, it is not the experience of a large majority of New Zealanders from any of these groups. Furthermore, group differences are small.</p>
<p>The large majority of New Zealanders also seem to be tolerant, including of different ethnic groups and religions, and are not angry, as far as one can tell, towards Muslims. </p>
<p>There appears to be, however, a small elevation in anger towards Muslims compared to ethnic groups. But whether anger is greater towards Muslims compared with other religious minorities remains unclear from the available evidence. It is worth observing that all religious groups, Muslim or otherwise, are minorities in New Zealand.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Many thanks to Chris Sibley, at the University of Auckland, for making the data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study available. Errors and opinions are mine alone.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114369/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Chapple does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many New Zealanders responded to the Christchurch terror attack with displays of unity and openness, and research into attitudes shows that tolerance is a widely held value.Simon Chapple, Director, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.