Group Sex Poll

[Thisguy]

Hi. As you can see I'm new. I'm doing a survey for education purposes (it's for a sexual class). If you could honestly answer the poll I'd appreciate it very much. Thank You.

[redpepper]

How are we suppose to answer the first and third one when we just press a button?

[opalescent]

The poll doesn't make a lot of sense Thisguy. Perhaps ask people to give you narratives answering the questions in the poll?

Also, it is helpful to know why you are doing the poll - 'sexual class' - but more details are useful. Are you a student in college, high school, graduate school, etc.? How will you use the information? What is your thesis? What are you trying to prove or disprove?

The more information you provide about why you are asking these questions, the more likely you will get good data from folks here. It is not necessary to tell us your name or location or anything personal but more information is better.

[Magdlyn]

Wank fodder.

Next.

[gort]

Hi. As you can see I'm new. I'm doing a survey for education purposes (it's for a sexual class). If you could honestly answer the poll I'd appreciate it very much. Thank You.

Seriously?

You need to set up your survey better.

[Thisguy]

This is my second attempt at making the poll. I realized the poll I made earlier wasn't done correctly. I was taking votes instead of asking the answer in the comments. So I'll post a few questions below and I'd appreciate it if you could answer them in comments below. :)

1. Male/Female/Intersex
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
9. Does this hurt your relationship?
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?

If you could just answer those questions in your comments I'd be very thankful.

And in the last thread I was asked about the background of this poll and here it is. I am a College college student. I am doing a presentation in my Sociology of Sexuality class on Group Sex. The goal of this poll is to understand who is involved in group sex and if it's healthy for a relationship. I chose this website because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex and I thought it was a good place to get some information.

Thank you for answering the questions. :)

[SourGirl]

lol.

A couple of um,..questions.

'Prefer two men, or two women' How do bisexuals answer this ? How do pansexuals answer this ? How does anyone having more then a threesome answer this ?

Does this hurt your relationship? Does 'what' hurt the relationship ? and the definition of hurt is,....Jealousy ? A bad time ? Impotence ?

...'because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex ...' Really ? News to me. Drunk, horny college kids participating in group sex would match, I bet.

[Thisguy]

lol.

A couple of um,..questions.

'Prefer two men, or two women' How do bisexuals answer this ? How do pansexuals answer this ? How does anyone having more then a threesome answer this ?

Does this hurt your relationship? Does 'what' hurt the relationship ? and the definition of hurt is,....Jealousy ? A bad time ? Impotence ?

...'because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex ...' Really ? News to me. Drunk, horny college kids participating in group sex would match, I bet.

I meant more women vs more men. And you can have more than 2 women or men. Sorry for the confusion.

"Hurt" the relationship as in do you begin to have jealousy? Your love life isn't as romantic after the experience because you need to engage in group sex more often to be sexually satisfied.

Sorry if that offended you. I didn't mean it to offend you. I assumed (I know assuming is bad) having many relationships that they would intertwine and multiple couples would engage in group sex.

[SourGirl]

No not offended. Though many poly people rally against the notion that they are one big orgy. It can be frustrating for some, to have everyone painted with the 'group sex'-brush.

Hint : It pays to do your research extensively, knowing your target audience, so that you can ask appropriate questions, and get accurate poll results.
Good luck.

[nycindie]

The goal of this poll is to understand who is involved in group sex and if it's healthy for a relationship. I chose this website because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex...

Really? "Heavily participates?" What poly community is that??? LOL

Many, many, many poly people do NOT participate in group sex. Group sex is not a given for poly relationships, nor is sex in general always a dominant focus for poly people. It seems your poll is focused on sex, rather than relationships, and I think you may be surprised at how many poly people place more importance on relationships rather than sex, many of whom choose to have non-sexual romantic partners. You might benefit from doing some reading, online and in scholarly journals, to learn more about polyamory so you can devise a poll or questionnaire that makes more sense to any group of poly people (even your use of the term "the poly community" indicates that you have some notions that there is a unifying factor among all polyamorous people that would lump them all together as a community with the same or similar standards when the only thing poly people have in common with other poly people is that they are involved in or desire consensual multiple intimate relationships).

Your questions assume that anyone who answers about their participation in group sex has done so while in a relationship. What if I've only done it while single and not in any relationships, and now I'm poly and have not had group sex since embarking on poly relationships? Then I can't answer several of your questions. So, really, your questions are only directed at a subset of poly people who have had group sex while poly, and not just any poly people in general. Also, re: "Does this hurt your relationship?" and "Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?" does "this" refer to having group sex, and what do you mean by "hurt" and "making a sacrifice?" Not totally clear, but it seems your questions are structured from some assumptions you've already made. Is there a hypothesis you are testing?

If this is for a Sociology class on Sexuality, and your presentation will be on Group Sex, you may want to query some swingers. It seems that swingers have many agreed-upon and widely accepted standards for group sexual activities, perhaps more so than poly people would. Many poly people have multiple partners who don't even know each other, and wouldn't ever be sexual with each other. Whereas swingers are pursuing group sex as an activity, so your report would gain more cohesive information. Much more variables in poly configurations.

[gort]

This is my second attempt at making the poll. I realized the poll I made earlier wasn't done correctly. I was taking votes instead of asking the answer in the comments. So I'll post a few questions below and I'd appreciate it if you could answer them in comments below. :)

1. Male/Female/Intersex
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
9. Does this hurt your relationship?
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?

If you could just answer those questions in your comments I'd be very thankful.

And in the last thread I was asked about the background of this poll and here it is. I am a College college student. I am doing a presentation in my Sociology of Sexuality class on Group Sex. The goal of this poll is to understand who is involved in group sex and if it's healthy for a relationship. I chose this website because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex and I thought it was a good place to get some information.

Thank you for answering the questions. :)

That's better.

1) Male
2 thru 5) I have not. I might at some point. but not right now. Her husband might want to watch th 2 of us as some point. I've said no for now.
6) er.... Well the me and 2 girls thing is a nice thought. But i havn't got a spare girl handy at the moment. There might be the reverse with my girlfriend and her husband. Maybe.
7) Straight
8) yes. see 6
9) No idea
10) well. My girlfriend did day she had that fantasy. I'm not really opposed. Just not at the point in our relationship. Plus there are there the logistics involving babysitting.


Sorry, life doesn't fit little checkboxes so well.

[AnotherConfused]

T

1. Male/Female/Intersex
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
9. Does this hurt your relationship?
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?



Hopefully you do want to hear from people who haven't had group sex, as I suspect that's the majority here.
1. Female
2. No
3. n/a
4. n/a
5. 0
6. I've had both fantasies, but don't know that I'd let either one happen.
7. Straight
8. Married plus in loving relationships with 2 men I don't have sex with
9. It's all a growth process
10. The part about not having group sex? It's what we all prefer.

[AnnabelMore]

1. Male/Female/Intersex - Female
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? - Yes
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...) - Usually 3, once 4
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? - I've done both at different times
5. How many times have you participated in group sex? - I couldn't begin to count, as it was a regular occurence in more than one old casual relationship, and is the norm in one my current serious relationships... it would be like saying "how many times have you participated in oral sex?"
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? - No preference, though this is worded really weirdly for me as I've usually been with one woman and one man when in multi-partner sexual situations... I guess since I'm a woman that makes it 2 women, but that's been a matter of circumstance, not preference. Plus it would make no sense for people in quads or in 3 person settings in which all involved are of the same sex. Tres heteronormative, if I may say so.
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) - Bi
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) - I currently have a bf and a gf (who aren't involved with each other, for the record).
9. Does this hurt your relationship? - It's the normal mode of sex I have with my gf, and it's not something I do with my bf, so no and n/a respectively.
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? - It's something I freely choose and enjoy, I wouldn't say I "prefer" it over couple sex but it's certainly not a sacrifice.

Are there message boards for swingers? Honestly, that's probably the crowd you're looking for with this more than polyfolk.

[Derbylicious]

1. Male/Female/Intersex Female
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? yes
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...) 3
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? participated (and once I was present where an orgy was taking place but it had nothing to do with me).
5. How many times have you participated in group sex? once
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? I don't think I have a preference so much. I honestly don't know if I would ever be in the position to have group sex again.
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) Bi
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) Married with a girlfriend
9. Does this hurt your relationship? It didn't hurt the relationship I was in but it did end a friendship with the 3rd party.
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? It happened, it was fun at the time, would I go in search of it? Probably not. Are either of my partners pushing for it? No.

[Anneintherain]

1. Male/Female/Intersex
Female
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
No
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
N/A
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
N/A
5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
N/A
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
if I do end up participating, at the moment I'd likely prefer 2 men
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
Straight but bicurious at the moment
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
Married & a BF
9. Does this hurt your relationship?
No
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?
If you're talking about being poly? I prefer it. If you're talking about group sex I am open to it under certain circumstances, but it surely wouldn't be FOR any of my partners, and definitely isn't a preference.

[kamala]

Well, just from a research perspective, you might want to rethink questions 6, 9 and 10. It's hard to see who you are addressing with question 6... seems like you are assuming women in threesomes, ie do they prefer 2 men or 2 women? I'm not sure.

And the last question... maybe you could ask what the overall effect of this has been on the person (not their relationship, because they may not be in one) as it seems kind of loaded as it's written. If you ask people themselves whether they are happy or not with their choices, you may get a more accurate result, although, you are on a polyamory forum... :o

My answers:
1. Female
2. Yes
3. 3
4. Participate
5. Just a handful
6. I don't have a preference, but perhaps 2 men
7. Fluid :)
8. I have a boyfriend and a girlfriend
9. Absolutely not
10. No sacrifices, everyone is happy

[redpepper]

I'm not too keen on the assumption that poly is about group sex but I am going to ignore that part and answer anyway. For the record it both is and isn't... complicated and worth researching further... For me some of my group sex was casual, not what I describe as poly and more about swinging or part of having an open relationship. Try searching in the tags for "casual sex," "sex," and anything else that might relate... or start another thread on this.

1. Male/Female/Intersex-female
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?-yes
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)-up to I dunno, 8-10? Don't know how many were there.
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?-both
5. How many times have you participated in group sex?-upward of 5? Don't remember
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?-whatever, a body is a body... makes no difference to me :)
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)-pansexual
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)married,bf's and gf
9. Does this hurt your relationship?-It hurt me in many aspects and ended some of my relationships (long stories there)... some of it was sport sex, and no, none of that hurt my relationship at the time.
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?-I didn't do it for anyone else but me and the people I was with... its debatable whether or not I did it for the people involved. Likely I did sometimes.

[nycindie]

1. Male/Female/Intersex - female
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? - yes
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? - 2 others besides me
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? - I took part in it
5. How many times have you participated in group sex? - twice
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? - male partners only
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) - straight
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) - yes
9. Does this hurt your relationship? - I don't really understand this question. What do you mean by "hurt" the relationship? Hurt how? Stir up jealousy? Not sure how to answer, but if "this" refers to polyamory, no. Non-exclusivity is an important part of my relationship. If "this" refers to group sex, no, because I have only participated in group sex while single, and it was years ago, way before I chose to pursue polyamorous relationships. If I ever participate in group sex again, it will have to be a situation where trust and respect are already firmly established, so I doubt it would hurt whatever relationships I will be in at that time.
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? - Again, I'm not sure what this question is asking. I don't "prefer" group sex, nor do I consider my current lover a partner, but I wouldn't participate in group sex unless I really wanted to. If anyone forced me into a sexual situation against my wishes, that would be rape. If I did it when I didn't want to, I don't understand how it could be a "sacrifice" in any way.

[Setxfamily]

1. Male/Female/Intersex Male
2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? YES Once or twice
3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...) 5
4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? Yes to both
5. How many times have you participated in group sex? twice
6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? 2+ men and one woman
7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) Bi
8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) Married
9. Does this hurt your relationship? Nope. Been together for 18 years now
10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? We both enjoy it very much.

[Tonberry]

1. Male/Female/Intersex
Female

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
Yes

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
2 and 3 (different occasions)

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
Participate, I have watched before but I never watched more that 2 people at once... not sure if it counts or not.

5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
A couple of times

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
Only had it with men. As I'm not bisexual I would probably enjoy it less with more women than men but I still think it would probably be a nice experience.


7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
Straight

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
Married to a man

9. Does this hurt your relationship?
It never hurt any relationship I was at the time of the events as far as I could tell (they didn't all happen during the same relationship)

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?
I wouldn't do it for a sacrifice. I've only ever done it because I think it's fun. I wouldn't say it's "what I prefer" though, the huge majority of my experience has been one on one.

[SchrodingersCat]

I also think this poll is in the wrong forum. If anything, I would wager that polyfolk participate LESS in group sex, for the simple reason that they are allowed to have meaningful relationships with other people and have one-on-one sex with those people, so they don't need to rely on the insecurity-based "You can have sex with other people, but only if I'm there and doing it too" mentality.

And in the last thread I was asked about the background of this poll and here it is. I am a College college student. I am doing a presentation in my Sociology of Sexuality class on Group Sex. The goal of this poll is to understand who is involved in group sex and if it's healthy for a relationship. I chose this website because the poly community heavily participates in the act of group sex and I thought it was a good place to get some information.

Thank you for answering the questions. :)

Problem 1
By targeting any specific group of people, your results are statistically insignificant. This makes it impossible to answer "who is involved in group sex" because any positive responses you get will not be indicative of the general population, but only a small, targeted subset.

Example, it's like walking into a gay bar and asking "Who here is gay?" and then when 95% of people put up their hands, you walk out and conclude that 95% of the general population is gay, which is obviously not true. Not to imply this is analogous to polyamory and group sex, because as you've seen it's not, but since that was what you were expecting when you asked the question, it definitely applies to your methodology.

Even if you did come here and find that we were all group-sex-maniacs, the fact that we're poly and actively working to live open, honest, and communicative relationships could mean that we're all really good at having group sex without negatively affecting the health of our relationships. But this would not answer whether or not, for the general population, group sex affects the health of relationships.

Problem 2
None of your questions will give significant insight into whether or not group sex is "healthy" for a relationship. The closest is 9 and 10, but these are subjective and require people to accurately self-assess the health of their relationship and to identify the specific cause of these problems, which is generally difficult for the average population.

Example, if you have a manipulative, controlling boyfriend who gets to the point of pressuring you to have group sex, then is it the group sex that hurts the relationship? Or the manipulation and control from the boyfriend?

If a couple with poor communication skills mutually decide to have group sex and are unable to talk about and deal with the emotions brought on by this activity, is it the group sex or their poor communication that hurts the relationship?

You have not identified or referred to any recognized meters of health in a relationship nor how they apply to group sex. I suggest you get online and read some respected journals, or at least open your textbook.

Problem 3 (regarding #6)
I believe the earlier objection to this question wasn't "what about more than two" but rather "what about one of each, or one tranny and one male, or one non-gender-identified person and a female, or no preference I just love group sex with anyone?"

Obviously in a threesome, unless all three participants are the same gender, then two of the participants will be involved with "one of each." So simple statistics says that roughly 2/3 of participants in threesomes are with neither two men or two women.

Problem 4 (regarding #7)
You really should do your homework for this so-called sexuality class. If you opened your textbook, you would know that there is much much more than just straight/gay, and that "etc" is a big fucking category that you are lumping together, which I find offensive. By analogy, answer me this: What is your research experience? (None/Minimal/etc.)

Conclusion
I just find this whole poll offensive and worse, unscientific. I mean, I can deal with being offended, I do it all the time. But as a scientist, I am much more disturbed by your research methodology. First you start with an assumption, admitting that you know assumptions are dangerous but ignoring that fact and following through with it regardless. That is not a way to do science, even social science which is soft at best.

I guarantee, a number of respected researchers have done very thorough surveys of these exact topics, using proper sampling techniques, respected meters of relationship health, and proper statistical analysis. They published their results, and if you're in a college or university then you should have access to those journals. Try talking to your professor about how you can access these results. Because if your reference list includes "I asked some people on the internet" then you'll probably lose marks, but if your reference list includes "Kinseley, A. 'Sex Behavior in the Human Animal.'" then you might do a bit better.

For the record...

1. Male/Female/Intersex
Female

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
No

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
n/a

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
n/a

5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
n/a

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
n/a

7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
etc.

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
Married

9. Does this hurt your relationship?
n/a

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?
n/a

[hyperskeptic]

Conclusion
I just find this whole poll offensive and worse, unscientific. I mean, I can deal with being offended, I do it all the time. But as a scientist, I am much more disturbed by your research methodology. First you start with an assumption, admitting that you know assumptions are dangerous but ignoring that fact and following through with it regardless. That is not a way to do science, even social science which is soft at best.

I guarantee, a number of respected researchers have done very thorough surveys of these exact topics, using proper sampling techniques, respected meters of relationship health, and proper statistical analysis. They published their results, and if you're in a college or university then you should have access to those journals. Try talking to your professor about how you can access these results. Because if your reference list includes "I asked some people on the internet" then you'll probably lose marks, but if your reference list includes "Kinseley, A. 'Sex Behavior in the Human Animal.'" then you might do a bit better.

Go a little easy here. A lot of this is on the instructor, and on the OP's program of study.

If the OP is an undergraduate who is not being trained as a social scientist but just taking a one-off elective or even a one-off social science requirement, it's unlikely he's expected to master anything like rigorous empirical methodology (or, for that matter, research ethics protocols).

(I'm not a social scientist myself, but I teach in a program in which students at all levels are required to take a full, semester-length course in research design, and in which undergraduates take a year-long capstone course in which they conduct research for clients. So, I have some sense of what a rigorous curriculum looks like.)

Most likely, this is a lazy sort of assignment on the instructor's part, asking students to take on a sort of toy project, to go out and collect data like pebbles on a beach, and do somethingorother with their collection for class credit.

So, no, it's not good science, not even good social science. (Some of my social scientist colleagues would rankle at this. Some of them are quite excruciatingly rigorous in their methodology, it's just the object of their study that is "soft" . . . ) But it's meant to be "a learning experience."

If I'm right about this, I'm sure the OP is learning quite a lot from this forum, though perhaps not what he expected to learn!

So, Thisguy, am I right in thinking you're doing this project for an undergraduate course? Is it a one-off elective? Did the course include any kind of training in empirical methodology for this kind of thing, or were you just turned loose to figure it out for yourself?

[hyperskeptic]

Anyway, here's another pebble for your collection:

1. Male/Female/Intersex
male

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?
no

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...)
n/a

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?
n/a

5. How many times have you participated in group sex?
zero

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men?
n/a

7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.)
Terribly, terribly straight

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF)
Married

9. Does this hurt your relationship?
Not engaging in group sex does not hurt my relationship.

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?
I prefer not to engage in group sex.

[AnnabelMore]

go out and collect data like pebbles on a beach

Love this!

Setting aside the OP, I think it's kinda cool just to see where we all are on the subject.

[opalescent]

1. Male/Female/Intersex. Female

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? No

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...) 0

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? N/A

5. How many times have you participated in group sex? N/A

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? N/A

7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) Bisexual

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) No, currently single.

9. Does this hurt your relationship? No

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? No

[Magdlyn]

1. Male/Female/Intersex. Cisgendered female, ID as genderqueer.

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex? Yes

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...) Several 3somes and one 4some

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch? Participated

5. How many times have you participated in group sex? 5 or 6

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? I don't know... I've never been with 2 men at once. It's more about the people than their gender.

7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.) My sexual preference knows no gender, I am pansexual.

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF) Partnered, with one primary and new relationships happening now as well.

9. Does this hurt your relationship? The second 3some I participated in in my late teens hurt my then primary relationship, but that is because I cheated, not because of the group sex aspect.

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner? Every time I participated in group sex, it was my own choice for my own pleasure.

[swingerjake]

1. Male/Female/Intersex: male

2. Have you ever been involved in group sex?: no

3. How many people did you engage in group sex with? (Ex: 3,4,5...): n/a

4. Did you participate in the act of sex or did you watch?: n/a

5. How many times have you participated in group sex?: zero

6. Do you prefer 2 women or 2 men? Either, though it's still fantasy for me

7. What is your sexual orientation? (Straight/Gay/etc.): Bi

8. Are you in a relationship? (Married/BF,GF): Married

9. Does this hurt your relationship?: We are currently only talking about this for future opportunities. But we are both happy and optimistic

10. Is this what you prefer or are you making a sacrifice for you partner?
Not quite sure yet.

[SchrodingersCat]

Go a little easy here. A lot of this is on the instructor, and on the OP's program of study.

If the OP is an undergraduate who is not being trained as a social scientist but just taking a one-off elective or even a one-off social science requirement, it's unlikely he's expected to master anything like rigorous empirical methodology (or, for that matter, research ethics protocols).

Fair enough. But I find it difficult to believe that any professor would send kids out on a research project where they're expected to conduct surveys and polls, without giving them at least a basic lesson in proper survey and poll procedures for research.

I still stick to my assumption that the professor's goal here was to get the students looking through published results, not to conduct their own surveys with meaningless conclusions due to faulty research methods...

Anecdotely, I have to say it's interesting to see how far his assumption was blown out of the water. Clearly, the poly community does not heavily participate in the act of group sex...