Out of curiosity... "purity" graph

[jay]

I looked at the posted public scores of people on my friends-list who took that test over the past couple of days, and generated a histogram. It looks like a two-mode distribution, centered around the low-30s and mid-60s respectively... I fall into the latter clump, personally (score = 69). Compare my friends with the average of all those taking the test (currently = 66)...

Oh, well... off to work now.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

You fall into the second-biggest clump, not the last one. :)

And they still don't really mean anything in terms of "fitting in," except as you perceive it -- which is probably the most important thing.

For many folks, the fact that you made a histogram is a much more relevant detail than anything on the test. ;)

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

For many folks, the fact that you made a histogram is a much more relevant detail than anything on the test. ;)

*chuckle* Yep. Now if someone graphed the geek scores...

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

Interesting, although in reality the #'s mean very little on if your going to get along with someone. That is only one aspect of a person.

Thanks for taking the time to do the graph.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Interesting! In fact the shape (bimodal) and peak locations are pretty much what purpletigron and I predicted in a discussion last night.

Two points to note (puts on lab report marking cap)...

1. The couting errors here actually make the signal for bimodality rather weak - the error on a count of n is sqrt(n) and the largest number in any bin is 6, so there are some pretty large errors here. So professionally I could only take these results as indicative and not as definitive.

2. There is a possible reason for the bimodality - bi-ness... If, like myself or brian1789 you're pretty much straight, there is a large chunk of score in this particular purity test that you won't get. What happens to the distribution if you only combine the scores from straight or gay (whichever the person is more experienced in)? Does this remove the bimodality?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Notes, likewise...
(1) Agreed, the sample size is too small. Although the bi-modality still holds with the handful of results posted since this morning. Suggestive, though.

(2) I thought about that as a reason for the double-peak... but the test seems to be evenly weighed in its overall scoring, so "gayness" only counts 1/6. A 50-60 point drop in that area, equating it to the "straightness" score, then only results in an eight or nine point drop in the overall average. I retook the test myself and simply duplicated my "straightness" checks, and my score only dropped from 69->60. So bi-ness, alone, isn't enough to explain a 30-point average gap between the clumps...

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

(2) Interesting - though there is a possibility that biness might correlate with other things that lower the test score. Have you tried the experiment of just removing all those who have a significant 'biness' judging from their answers? I think this would be an interesting parallel experiment to your own score duplication.

A couple of thoughts....

[brooksmoses]

I just realized, in reading one of your later posts, that this test is biased towards bisexuals by about 20%. See, people who've had full-on sex with both genders get to check off most of the points in both the "same sex" and "opposite sex" categories, whereas people who've only had experience with one gender only get one category -- even if they've had many different partners. And there goes 1/5th of the test.

Hmm....

So, consider your spread. It appears to me that a person who's had relatively vanilla sex with people of just one gender will get around 60%. A person who's had relatively vanilla sex with people of both common genders will get around 40%. Add to this that a moderate amount of kinkiness will get another 10% to 20% off, and one expects some smearing downward from those points.

Thus, I'd conclude that the gap at 50% likely indicates that your bisexual friends tend to be kinkier than your straight (or purely homosexual) friends. And the relative weighting indicates that you probably have more bisexual people on your friends list than you do straight or homosexual people.

It occurs to me that it might be interesting to try separating out the data by orientation to see if that holds up, and also to try separating it out by gender to see if there are gender differences.

Re: A couple of thoughts....

[brooksmoses]

Or maybe not; I should have read the comments before posting!

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's 1/6, not 1/5, so not as much of a difference. But I agree with you (and purplecthulhu) in that there are probably other kinky/fetish behaviors that in addition with relations with both genders, tend to lower scores by more than just 1/6. Those folks that are willing to experiment in one area may very well be willing to try out behaviors in some of the other areas.

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

I scored 65.. so you're just slightly more pure than me.

:)
seriously.. I was glad to see someone else scored in my general range. All the folks I've seen taking the test have scored WAY lower numbers than me.....

I was beginning to feel a little freaky... in a very un-freaky way.
:)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I wonder what your score would be, nowadays... (wink)

I think my score got worse.. how could that be?

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

Your Ultimate Purity Score Is...
Category	Your Score	Average
Self-Lovin'	58.3% Explored the pleasures of the flesh	65%
Shamelessness	83.3% Has yet to see self in mirror	79.4%
Sex Drive	81.6% The Pope is envious	77.7%
Straightness	28.6% Done the nasty, but not creatively	44.9%
Gayness	83.9% Repressed, are we?	83.5%
Fucking Sick	86.7% Refreshingly normal	89.9%
You are 69.05% pure Average Score: 72.6%
Take The Ultimate Purity Test and see how you match up!