7 ms·

I had never heard of this device before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph It conjures t

I had never heard of this device before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_plethysmograph It conjures to mind one of the scenes from A Clockwork Orange. I have to wonder if this really works, or if it has an especially high false-positive rate for people with weird medical fetishes.

goldenkey 8y ago
You would hope some kind of control would be ran so as not to provide a false positive. Kind of crazy something so specific even exists..
blattimwind 8y ago
> though only 32% accurate, had the highest accuracy among methods of identifying which sexual offenders will go on to commit new sexual crimes i.e. a random number generator is more accurate.
- folli 8y ago
  So if you invert its output, it will be more accurate than a rng?
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    No because then you have to invert the question too, and you’re back where you started.
    - p1esk 8y ago
      What? No.
- probably_wrong 8y ago
  Accurate? Sure. But accuracy is only one part of the picture: a system with 32% accuracy but a 0% rate of false positives would be very useful.
- upofadown 8y ago
  The results are combined with a polygraph test to improve the randomness...
RankingMember 8y ago
> A phallometric study indicated that men who are more homophobic show greater penile arousal to stimuli depicting gay sex than do less homophobic men. An interesting tidbit if there's any real scientific value to this device. The study: https://web.archive.org/web/20081030231209/http://www.oogachaga.com/downloads/homophobia_and_homosexual_arousal.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20081030231209/http://www.oogach...
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  They also note that the physical arousal may be entirely due to anxiety; and that the used definition of homophobia seems not to be accurate (ie not a phobia). FWIW there's a very important distinction between physical arousal and sexual attraction - ignoring that can be a source of great shame for some men (those who are abused/assaulted for example). I used to hate riding on the bus (because I'd get bullied), but I also commonly got erections on the bus (the vibrations); so was I really bus-sexual ...
  - RankingMember 8y ago
    An important point. I'm sure many young males might be classified scholar-sexual under similar classification methods due to similarly innocuous erections during class.

goldenkey 8y ago

You would hope some kind of control would be ran so as not to provide a false positive. Kind of crazy something so specific even exists..

blattimwind 8y ago

> though only 32% accurate, had the highest accuracy among methods of identifying which sexual offenders will go on to commit new sexual crimes i.e. a random number generator is more accurate.

folli 8y ago
So if you invert its output, it will be more accurate than a rng?
- arcticbull 8y ago
  No because then you have to invert the question too, and you’re back where you started.
  - p1esk 8y ago
    What? No.
probably_wrong 8y ago
Accurate? Sure. But accuracy is only one part of the picture: a system with 32% accuracy but a 0% rate of false positives would be very useful.
upofadown 8y ago
The results are combined with a polygraph test to improve the randomness...

RankingMember 8y ago

> A phallometric study indicated that men who are more homophobic show greater penile arousal to stimuli depicting gay sex than do less homophobic men. An interesting tidbit if there's any real scientific value to this device. The study: https://web.archive.org/web/20081030231209/http://www.oogachaga.com/downloads/homophobia_and_homosexual_arousal.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20081030231209/http://www.oogach...

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
They also note that the physical arousal may be entirely due to anxiety; and that the used definition of homophobia seems not to be accurate (ie not a phobia). FWIW there's a very important distinction between physical arousal and sexual attraction - ignoring that can be a source of great shame for some men (those who are abused/assaulted for example). I used to hate riding on the bus (because I'd get bullied), but I also commonly got erections on the bus (the vibrations); so was I really bus-sexual ...
- RankingMember 8y ago
  An important point. I'm sure many young males might be classified scholar-sexual under similar classification methods due to similarly innocuous erections during class.