“The Measure of a Man” about (what else?) average penis size, what’s normal, and such

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Konrad Marshall (pictured below, outside of Morrison Hall, which is where The Kinsey Institute is housed) of Indy.com is a talented writer – so talented that when I sent my mom a link to an article that he wrote about men’s penis size and featuring remarks by her own daughter (yes, that’s me deep in thought, above), what my normally proud mom wanted to talk about was Konrad. And his writing. And how it made one want to keep reading. Which is quite true, by the way – check out the article on Indy.com - not that I’m feeling at all ousted from my mother’s pride by a man I’ve met just once. (I jest, of course.) In all seriousness, Konrad is a very talented writer and an extremely likable person whose work should certainly be watched closely on Indy.com.

You can learn more about The Kinsey Institute and its incredible research program, art collection and library collection on their web site. Also, you can learn about our sexuality education program and subscribe to our (free!) audio podcasts on our Kinsey Confidential web site.

About Dr. Debby Herbenick

Dr. Debby Herbenick

Dr. Debby Herbenick is a sex researcher at Indiana University, sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute, columnist, and author of five books about sex and love. Learn more about her work at www.sexualhealth.indiana.edu.

  • jw

    Good article. But it got me wondering about the source of the data you cite. Not that it’s flawed per se, but how it’s collected. Is is like exit polling? Do you ask people on the street if you can measure them?

  • jw

    Good article. But it got me wondering about the source of the data you cite. Not that it’s flawed per se, but how it’s collected. Is is like exit polling? Do you ask people on the street if you can measure them?

  • http://www.indy.com/ Ben Neff

    Thanks so much Dr. Debby! To anyone interested in reading more by Konrad, a list of his articles for Indy.com can be found via his profile, which Dr. Debby kindly already linked: http://www.indy.com/people/Konrad.Marshall or here: http://www.indy.com/users/posts/2752

    “The Measure of a Man” was the first article for his ‘Sex and Relationships’ column, which will now be weekly.

  • http://www.indy.com Ben Neff

    Thanks so much Dr. Debby! To anyone interested in reading more by Konrad, a list of his articles for Indy.com can be found via his profile, which Dr. Debby kindly already linked: http://www.indy.com/people/Konrad.Marshall or here: http://www.indy.com/users/posts/2752

    “The Measure of a Man” was the first article for his ‘Sex and Relationships’ column, which will now be weekly.

  • Nathan

    This was a great article, I really appreciated the information. It also brought me to your site, where I have since spent a few hours learning some very interesting things.

    Keep it up, your stuff is both informative, and quite hilarious at times.

  • Nathan

    This was a great article, I really appreciated the information. It also brought me to your site, where I have since spent a few hours learning some very interesting things.

    Keep it up, your stuff is both informative, and quite hilarious at times.

  • Debby

    Glad everyone is enjoying learning about Konrad, penis size data and the wonders of MSP. To answer jw’s question, penis size data is sometimes collected via self-report and other times by having a clinician/researcher do the measuring. A major criticism of self-report data has been that men may be inclined to over-report to make themselves look larger than they are.

    However, with a few exceptions, most of the penis size data is fairly consistent. More recently, my colleagues and I conducted a study in which men self-reported their size. However, they were likely motivated to report an accurate size, and to be careful with their measurement, as we then provided them with condoms tailored to their erect size. We found similar size data as other studies which suggests a more general reliability of size reports in other studies, too.

  • Debby

    Glad everyone is enjoying learning about Konrad, penis size data and the wonders of MSP. To answer jw’s question, penis size data is sometimes collected via self-report and other times by having a clinician/researcher do the measuring. A major criticism of self-report data has been that men may be inclined to over-report to make themselves look larger than they are.

    However, with a few exceptions, most of the penis size data is fairly consistent. More recently, my colleagues and I conducted a study in which men self-reported their size. However, they were likely motivated to report an accurate size, and to be careful with their measurement, as we then provided them with condoms tailored to their erect size. We found similar size data as other studies which suggests a more general reliability of size reports in other studies, too.

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