It's Valentine's Day, and Jumbos' minds are filled with thoughts of love, romance. But in addition to red roses and candy hearts, another more taboo topic is sidling its way in to students' thoughts as well: sex.
Over the past week, the Daily anonymously polled 157 undergraduates in Dewick, Carmichael, the Tower Caf?©, Brown and Brew and the campus center about their sexual habits and perceptions at college. The survey was nonscientific and reflects only the views and experiences of those students who chose to participate.
Nonetheless, it gave an interesting look into the minds of some Jumbos.
According to Joe DeBold, a psychology professor who is teaching the course "Human Sexuality" this semester, students' perceptions and attitudes about sex can be greatly affected by the college environment.
"People are influenced by their peers, and one of the things that happens in college is that you're put into a group that's perhaps different from where you were before," DeBold said. "In addition, in college, people are given a lot more personal freedom than they have in the past."
Among the Jumbos polled, this personal freedom manifested itself in a variety of ways. Approximately 28 percent of respondents said they'd had sex within the past week, and 40 percent said they'd had sex within the past month. More than half - 60 percent - said they'd had sex within the past year.
At the same time, 28 percent said they were virgins, which means that only roughly 12 percent of respondents had had sex at some point in their lives, but not within the past year. Of students who were not virgins, 28 percent said they lost their virginity at Tufts.
The percentage of virgins varied between genders: 32 percent of females said they were virgins, while only 24 percent of males said so. Of students who were not virgins, 15 percent of men said they lost their virginity at Tufts, while 36 percent of females said so.
Sophomore Udy Onyeador said she thinks that even though the poll is nonscientific, its statistical difference is true among Tufts students.
"I think there's more pressure for guys to lose their virginity as opposed to girls," Oneador said. "I think that that's why there's a slightly higher percentage [of female virgins]."
According to DeBold, however, the degree to which social pressures influence a student's sexual behavior depends on the student's personality.
"We're getting into things that involve personal ethics and beliefs," he said. "Certainly, when people arrive at a university, they don't all of a sudden become the same people in terms of religious, moral, political beliefs, and those things do influence personal behavior."
"I'm not saying that there's no social influence," he added. "It would be one of many factors."
The poll also found a significant difference in the amount of sex reported by males and by females. Of those polled, 33 percent of males reported having had sex in the past week, while only 22 percent of women reported doing so. Within the past year, 66 percent of males and 53 percent of females said they'd had sex.
Sophomore Jonah Schey, however, said he doesn't think men actually have more sex than women.
"Men are more likely to exaggerate," he said, pointing out that some students may have taken the survey with their friends present, and might have felt pressured to lie.
Sophomore Susan Lee agreed. "I think the girls are just not telling the truth, because if the guys are having that much sex, they have to be having it with someone," Lee said. "I think the girls are just being shy about telling the truth."
Onyeador disagreed. "I don't think there's any reason people would lie on an anonymous survey," she said.
In addition to gender, students' answers varied based on their class year. Among freshmen, 54 percent of females and 46 percent of males said they were virgins, but only 15 percent of females and eight percent of males said they lost their virginity at Tufts. In contrast, 6 percent of the male seniors polled and 8 percent of the female seniors polled were virgins, while 25 percent of males and 75 percent of females said they lost their virginity at Tufts.
The high difference in those statistics may be the result of a smaller sample among seniors - only 19 percent of those polled were seniors, since some of the polling took place at the dining halls, which, presumably, upperclassmen visit less often. Twenty-one percent were juniors, and the rest were underclassmen.
The poll also found that the students who responded had average sex lives. When asked to rate Jumbos' level of sexual satisfaction on a scale of one to 10, with one being "very sexually frustrated" and 10 being "very sexually satisfied," students who took the survey gave an average rating of 5.2.
The difference between males' answers and females' answers to that question was insignificant, an average of less than 0.2. Female sophomores and female seniors tied for the lowest level of sexual satisfaction with ratings of 4.6 each. Male juniors and seniors tied for the highest level of sexual satisfaction with ratings of 5.2 each.
Debold said the results of the poll could be entertaining, but warned against putting too much weight on the survey's findings, since they are based solely on the experiences of the people who were willing to participate. Of students asked to fill out surveys, eight declined. Three students agreed to fill out the survey but did not fill it out and returned a blank form.
"Volunteer samples tend to give you different data than random samples do," DeBold said. "There are a lot of factors that can significantly shift the percentages."
The poll's results may also have been influenced by natural human error.
