I don't know what to say to this news which
has been floating around recently. The Durex
Sexual Well-being Global Survey conducted by
the condom manufacturer, interviewed 26,000
people in 26 countries and ranked Nigerian
women as the most unfaithful in the world. Daily Times reports that "the top two countries with cheating women are Nigeria, with 62
percent, and Thailand, 59 percent. 39 percent of
Malaysian women also confessed to having
betrayed their partners. Russian women came
fourth at 33 percent while Singaporeans are fifth
at 19 percent." From a link I got in the comments, I went to the Durex survey methodology page where I found the following information. - The survey was conducted during August and
September 2006 by a research agency called
Harris Interactive.
- Random samples of participants aged 16 + or
18+ were sent an email invitation to participate
in the survey. - The sample was primarily sourced from Harris
Interactive’s internet panel.
- An online approach was adopted in 25
countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China,
France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan,
India, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands,New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa,
Switzerland, Thailand, UK, USA.
- For Nigeria a face-to-face/self completion
approach was adopted, due to the low use of
internet and telephone.
- They used a sample size of 1,000 for the majority of countries surveyed. Which brings me to my conclusion. A sample size
of just one thousand is just too small to reference
a population of at least 70million women in
Nigeria. Also, a face to face interview method
tells me that the sampling was not as random as
the other countries. I think the location and manner this method leaves it open to more
prejudice than an online sampling. For instance, it
is very probable that only women in Lagos were
sampled, or women found at sexual health
clinics, or women who might not really
understand the questionnaire. Vera Ezimora also thinks Durex left out the fine print. With all that said, I'm not vouching women as
saints. Women cheat, and where it is likely that
men cheat a lot, it is also more likely that the
numbers of unfaithful women will be high. Is this
the case in Nigeria? You tell me.
