In short, the Telegraph story blatantly and cynically misrepresented the purpose and findings of Ms Shaw’s student project.

The Telegraph article (or at least the one now pointed to) reads

“Miss Shaw and her team, who present their results at the Forensic Psychology Annual conference run by the British Psychological Society, recruited 101 men, aged 18 to 70, from their university and local rugby and football clubs. ”

There is a big difference between being in a team and a club. Lots of people are members of the latter without being the former (often to advanced ages). So is the current Telegraph article right, is it this one or neither right? In any case, team or club, then it’s hardly a random choice of people if that was the way it was done.

I think I’d want to see the full paper before commenting. I’m a bit dubious about this sort of survey anyway – there are all sorts of ways that wording can be interpreted differently, not to mention the use of the word coercion. Quite where wooing goes to persuasion goes to coercion is going to be at different points to different people. Without seeing the actual wording then it’s difficult to judge.

Um the university article simply says that 100 men between 18 and 70 were surveyed. So, if your statement is also correct then Leicester has 70 year olds in soccer and rugby teams. Damn they stay fit a long time in Leicester!