45 years ago today - Feb 5, 1971

Alvin R. Dyer, a Counselor in the First Presidency, writes to LDS sociologist Harold T. Christensen concerning a news story quoting Christensen: "Christensen said the percentages of college women who had premarital coitus increased from 10 percent in 1958 to 32 percent in 1968 at a western university "which represents the highly restrictive Mormon culture." Dyer says, "It would be helpful to us to have further information of this alarming condition; . . . How and by whom was the survey made which produced these percentages?" Christensen responds: ". . . much as I would like to comply with your present request, I am unable to do so because of my responsibility as a researcher to protect the anonymity of the individuals and institutions studied; and indeed my commitment to do so in the case of the Intermountain sample. To do otherwise would violate my sense of integrity, and so I must ask that you respect my commitment and responsibility as a scientist. One would not ask the physician to betray the confidences of his patients nor the marriage counselor, to give another example, to reveal the secrets of his clients. The researcher has a similar responsibility to his subject-"