Geoffrey Miller, who shared a 2008 Ig Nobel Prize, for research on lap dancers’ fertility and earning power, continues his relentless pursuit of knowledge. Professor Miller and several colleagues have come up with a new use for 3D printing. They tell all in the new study:
“Women’s Preferences for Penis Size: A New Research Method Using Selection among 3D Models,” Nicole Prause [pictured here, right], Jaymie Park, Shannon Leung, Geoffrey Miller, PLoS ONE, 10(9), September 2, 2015: e0133079. The authors, at UCLA and the University of New Mexico, explain:
Studies of women’s penis size preferences typically have relied on their abstract ratings or selecting amongst 2D, flaccid images. This study used haptic stimuli to allow assessment of women’s size recall accuracy for the first time, as well as examine their preferences for erect penis sizes in different relationship contexts. Women (N = 75) selected amongst 33, 3D models. Women recalled model size accurately using this method, although they made more errors with respect to penis length than circumference. Women preferred a penis of slightly larger circumference and length for one-time (length = 6.4 inches/16.3 cm, circumference = 5.0 inches/12.7 cm) versus long-term (length = 6.3 inches/16.0 cm, circumference = 4.8 inches/12.2 cm) sexual partners. These first estimates of erect penis size preferences using 3D models suggest women accurately recall size and prefer penises only slightly larger than average.
Here’s graphical detail from the study:
Here’s graphic detail from the study:
During the inspection, she was asked not to measure the model using any objects in the room, but no instruction was provided regarding how she used her own hands. Then, the experimenter left for 30 seconds (without observing the participant’s inspection process), returned, took the test model from the participant and out of the testing room, and asked the participant to select which penis model (from the 33 described above) was most similar in size to the test model she just handled. The participant recorded the letter code from the bottom of that model into the computer.
The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to Geoffrey Miller [pictured below, holding an object in one hand], Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating. Their prize-winning study is: “Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?” Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 375-81.
BONUS (possibly unrelated): Snake Bites a Frequently-Metaphorical Snake