Freakonomics authors make a big blunder (maybe)

First of all, they are using wordpress software which is fine and dandy. However, they recently wrote an article in the NYTimes entitled Changing Teams about people’s apparent change in sexual orientation due to economic pressures which seems to me all wrong. Anyway, the comments on their blog including my own seem to cover the bases for them.

The author of the paper upon which the study is based has come forward to defend his study in a separate posting. In the main, the defense is the study was truly anonymous; subjects should have felt safe to reveal their homosexual behaviors. Admittedly, sexual behavior is a difficult topic to study. Even Kinsey seems to have had the opposite problem. 10% of his male subjects were homosexual. Today the ‘actual’ number seems to have come down to around 6%. Perhaps there is a gene/mechanism in operation which says only one sibling is gay. Already, there is a correlation in other studies increasing the chances of male son being gay if he is second or subsequent male born. Since most people don’t have that many children these days, perhaps this is sufficient to make a one per household sort of situation. Maybe the study was correct after all…