e079982f   
   From: archmage@sfchat.org   
      
   David Friedman  wrote:   
   >  James A. Donald  wrote:   
   > > On checking the data, I find the US rate is 34% and that   
   > > though some European countries are indeed exceeding   
   > > fifty percent, the typical rate is exactly the same as   
   > > the US - slightly more than a third of all births.   
   >   
   > Presumably that's defined by legal marital status--which could give the   
   > wrong result in either direction. There are stable couples who are not   
   > married, and there are marriages that are not stable.   
      
   Indeed.  One commonly misinterpreted piece of data is that around 1/3 of all   
   paternity tests show that the presumed father could not have been - the   
   misinterpretation is that it's often quoted to claim that the same is true   
   for 1/3 of all births, when it's pretty obvious that paternity tests tend to   
   be rather clearly selected for cases where there's already some doubt as to   
   paternity.   
      
   I'm not aware of any randomized large-population study testing for paternity   
   matches in the general population, but it would certainly be interesting to   
   see what the actual number was.   
      
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   Nate Edel                               http://www.cubiclehermit.com/   
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