It is hard to imagine a pollster asking a question like this today, but in 1939, Elmo Roper did just that. The pollster asked whether sexual relations for young people before marriage were all right, unfortunate, or wicked. Interviews were done face-to-face then, so women interviewed women and men interviewed men. Only 10 percent of women said this was all right for young men, while 35 percent said it was unfortunate, and 47 percent wicked. Eleven percent of men said it was all right for young girls, 52 percent unfortunate, and 28 percent wicked. Today, the General Social Survey, a project of NORC at the University of Chicago, asks about sexual relations before marriage for people in their early teens, say 14 to 16 years old. In 2016, 77 percent said they were always or almost always wrong; in 1986, 85 percent gave that response. Women remain slightly more likely than men to take that view, 80 percent compared to 75 percent in 2016. When asked about premarital sexual relations more generally, 26 percent of adults in 2016 described them as always or almost always wrong, down from 45 percent in 1972.
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