Yesterday, we shared with you the story of Missouri State University professor Alicia Walker.
Walker launched a study on June 18 to research the relationship between penis size and self-esteem. Walker also hoped to then see how that affected other aspects of men’s lives like their social interaction and sexual activity.
In just the week and half since then, Walker has seen a lot of information coming in about the negative effects perceived penis size can have on self-esteem.
“I’ve spoken to men who have been suicidal because of their anxiety and unhappiness with their size or perceived size,” Walker told the New York Post. “We need to be talking about men’s body dysmorphia, and the way our society worships size and the way that worship impacts men.”
While the main part of the study focused on an online survey and interviews to gain a sense of the male participants’ perspectives, there was one other aspect to the study.
Walker asked the willing participants to send her pictures of their erect and flaccid penises. This was to make sure that the men were correctly measuring their equipment and not skewing the data.
While Alicia Walker originally hoped to receive photos from 3,600 men within the ages of 22 and older, she later decided to end the study early.
Walker’s reasoning for this sudden end to her research is due to the mass media coverage of the study. From Men’s Health and the New York Post to local news blogs like the Riverfront Times, many new sources covered the story of Alicia Walkers work and she feels this has compromised the study.
“I made this decision voluntarily,” Walker said in a university press release. “I continue to believe the relationship between penis size and self-esteem is an important site of scientific inquiry, but the public reaction to the project threatens the reliability of the survey responses. The reliability of the study as a whole has been compromised.”
But what happened to the few hundred penis photos Walker has already received? Well, Missouri State assured that all of the submitted photos were previously stored in a “secure research database” and have already been destroyed.
Correction: 3,6000 is not a
Correction: 3,6000 is not a number.