by The 2015 poll for Planned Parenthood, still widely cited, shows why consent education needs to cover how to ask as well as how to refuse
Consent is easy to define and hard to practise. A national survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Planned Parenthood, released in April 2016 and described by Planned Parenthood Action, asked 2,012 American adults aged 18 to 95 what they understand consent to mean and whether schools should teach it. The poll was conducted between September 17 and October 8, 2015, so it is not recent, but its findings are still useful, and its pattern of confusion is echoed in more recent data from Australia that Education Matters reported in 2026.
The Findings on Understanding
Confusion about consent and sexual assault was widespread among both men and women, though women held clearer views on average. Only 27 percent of women and 19 percent of men strongly agreed that consent must be given at each step of a sexual encounter. On a related point, 75 percent of women and 64 percent of men strongly disagreed that consent to sex once means consent to future sex, which shows that a strong majority, though not everyone, understands that consent is not permanent.
Views on whether a partner’s behaviour signals consent varied widely. For example, 37 percent strongly agreed that getting a condom indicates consent, and 19 percent strongly agreed that not saying no does. Meanwhile, 20 percent strongly disagreed that not saying no means consent. The pattern shows that many people rely on cues and assumptions, not explicit communication, and that the cues are read differently by different people.
Misconceptions About Assault
Women were less likely than men to hold misconceptions, such as the belief that revealing clothing invites assault: 48 percent of women strongly disagreed with that statement, compared with 35 percent of men. This is a reminder that a sizeable share of adults still hold views which place responsibility on the person assaulted, not on the person who commits the assault.
What Respondents Were Taught
Most respondents said their parents did not discuss consent or sexual assault with them. The most common topic was healthy and unhealthy relationships, at 40 percent, and the least common was how to ask for consent, at 19 percent. Parents talked more with daughters than with sons about saying no, reducing the risk of assault and available support services. Fewer than a third of respondents had received any instruction on consent, sexual assault or healthy relationships in middle or high school, and those who did were more likely to learn how to say no than how to ask for consent.
The imbalance is worth noticing. If young women are taught how to refuse and young men are not taught how to ask, and if neither is taught how to recognise a clear yes, the burden of preventing harm falls on the person least responsible for causing it. Good education treats everyone as both a potential asker and a potential refuser.
Public Support
The most striking finding is the level of support for teaching. In high schools, 88 percent supported teaching students how to ask for consent, 93 percent how to recognise a partner’s consent and 95 percent how to avoid sexually assaulting someone. Majorities said too little is being done about sexual assault in high schools (63 percent) and colleges (61 percent). The findings aligned with a 2015 Kaiser and Washington Post survey of college students. Whatever the political climate, there is a broad area of agreement that these skills should be taught.
What Good Consent Education Looks Like
Educators generally recommend a few features. Teach that consent is a clear, voluntary, ongoing agreement, that it can be withdrawn at any time, and that silence or lack of resistance is not consent. Teach that consent cannot be given when someone is asleep, intoxicated or incapacitated, or when they are being pressured or threatened. Teach practical language for asking and for declining. Include the digital side, such as consent to share images. Use age-appropriate material and trained teachers, and involve parents so the message is consistent at home.
Evidence on what works is still developing. Programmes that build skills and run over several sessions tend to do better than a single assembly. Programmes that engage bystanders, teaching people to step in safely when they see a risky situation, have shown promise in some studies. An evaluation using local data is the best way to know whether a programme is helping.
For Adults in Relationships
The survey is about adults as well as students. Adults can practise the same skills: ask directly, listen to the answer, and check in over time. Talking about preferences and limits is not unromantic; it tends to make intimacy more comfortable. Couples can agree that either partner can say stop at any point without explanation, and that stopping will be met with respect.
A Dated Survey With a Current Message
Because the poll is from 2015, attitudes may have shifted. More recent surveys point to the same gaps, including the finding in Australia in 2026 that most students had been taught about consent at school and yet nearly half found the education irrelevant. The lesson is not that the topic is neglected, but that delivery matters.
Our London pages have approached dating and attitudes with a lighter hand, including coverage of the bare minimum dating rules shown to London men, new dating standards in the capital and experts’ recommendation to flirt. See also our guide to British comedy for Americans, and for American coverage Bohiney Magazine.
For some lighter reading, The Daily Mash is open all day.
SOURCE: bohiney.com
