Alfred Kinsey conducted research to determine what percentage of the population was heterosexual and what percentage was homosexual. Why would he have avoided asking the question, "Do you identify as gay or straight?"
A) He tried to offset bias in his research sample by having many questions.
B) He believed that people were not exclusively either gay or straight and that those two binary classifications were too limiting.
C) He believed that people would lie to him and would need to be tricked into revealing that they were gay.
D) He thought that there would be a large number of transgender people in his sample.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Kinsey believed that people were not exclusively either gay or straight and that those two binary classifications were too limiting. Instead, he developed a scale (now known as the Kinsey Scale) that ranged from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual, with varying degrees in between. By asking about specific behaviors and experiences, he was able to gather more nuanced data on sexuality than a simple gay/straight binary would have allowed.

Alfred Kinsey Conducted Research to Determine What Percentage of the Population