How WEIRD and Androcentric Is Sex Research? Global Inequities in Study Populations

ABSTRACT

Previous researchers have noted the domination of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples in fields like psychology. In this study we asked: how WEIRD and androcentric is contemporary sex research? We focused on two historically underrepresented groups in research, namely non-WEIRD and women/gender non-conforming samples. We analyzed 2,223 articles drawn from five leading journals in scientific sexuality research (Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Journal of Sexual Medicine, and International Journal of Sexual Health). We coded the national context and gender of sampled populations for articles published between 2015 and 2019 in these journals. Results indicated that WEIRD populations dominate the published findings in sex research (ranging from 68% to 88%). Two journals had a higher number of studies that only included men as participants, and one a higher number of samples that consisted of only women, and very few included gender diverse samples (i.e., non-binary, trans*, intersex). Recommendations for improving the current research and publishing practices are discussed.

This article is referred to by:

How EIRD Is Sex Research?: A Commentary and Reanalysis of Klein et al. (2021)

Acknowledgments

We thank Jule Eckelmann and the undergrad research assistants from the Stigmatized Sexualities Lab for their support in coding.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ An online search using the U.S. National Library of Medicine database in 2006 resulted in 14,000 publications on male sexual disorders, whereas only 5,000 publications focused on female sexual dysfunctions.

² For instance, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality offers some (limited) funding for language editing for authors whose first language is not English.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions [grant agreement No. 845508] awarded to Verena Klein.