The "1-in-3 College Men Would Rape" Study

"No polling organization would ever be taken seriously if its sample size was 73, and neither should this 'study' on college rape," begins Mark J. Perry.

A "study" conducted by "researchers' at the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University ("Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourse: Exploring Differences Among Responders") and published in the journal Violence and Gender claims to find that almost one in 3 college men would commit rape "if nobody would ever know and there wouldn't be any consequences." Oy vey, where to begin on this one? 

The study's conclusions were drawn from responses of only 73 male students, who were compensated with "extra credit for their participation" (suggesting they were all taking the same course), at a single unidentified North Dakota university.  The "margin of sampling error" for a tiny sample size of 73 is so huge as to make the results meaningless to the entire 9 million male college student population in the U.S.

Yet the conclusions fit so nicely with the Left's current campus sexual assault narrative that left-wing media shouted it out:

• Study: 1 in 3 Men Would Rape if They Wouldn't Get Caught or Face Consequences (Cosmopolitan)
• Study Finds That a Third of College Men Would Rape if They Could Get Away With It (Feministing)
•  1 in 3 College Men Admit they would Rape If We Don't Call it Rape (Jezebel)

And another liberal lie is born.