The landscape of human sexuality - modelling distances among various "normophilic" and paraphilic sexual arousal patterns in an online representative sample of men and women
Abstrakt
Objectives We tend to think about paraphilic and "normophilic" patterns of sexual arousal as being strictly separated, yet the actual degree of „separatedness“ is unknown. In our research, we attempted to model relative distances among patterns and create a probabilistic landscape of arousal.
Methods We collected data on sexual arousal from 5023 Czech men and 5021 Czech women via online representative quota sampling. Examined patterns of sexual arousal involved: consensual teleiophilic heterosexuality (Het), consensual teleiophilic homosexuality (Hom), beating and torture (Beat), humiliation (Humil), pedophilia (Pedo), hebephilia (Hebe), autogynephilia (Autogyn)/autoandrophilia (Autoandro), cross-dressing (Transvest), fetishism (Fet), exhibitionism (Exhib), voyeurism (Voy), frottage (Frott), non-consensual immobilization (Immob), biastophilia (Biast) and zoophilia (Zoo).
Relative distances among arousal patterns were modelled using advanced metric called fuzzy sets intersection and visualized into 2D and 3D using a method called sociomapping (Bahbouh & Bahbouh, 2005). Results Six main clusters of arousal were revealed - Het, Hom, Biast, Beat, Zoo, Pedo in men and Het, Beat, Biast, Zoo, Hebe, Pedo in women.
Other patterns (e.g. Autogyn/Autoandro or Transvest) were intermediate between the main identified clusters.
In both sexes, Het cluster subsumed Voy, Frott, Exhib and Fetish. Landscapes in men and women differed in two main aspects: a) Het and Hom arousal patterns were separate in men but not in women, and b) Hebe constituted its own separate cluster in women, whereas in men, it was an intermediate pattern on the wide periphery of Het cluster.
Conclusions Our analysis revealed six main clusters of arousal in both sexes. Main clusters were connected to each other via intermediate arousal patterns.
Clustering was comparable in men and women, with the exception of the Hom and Hebe pattern. Conflicts of Interest This project was supported by the Czech Science Foundation project GACR (20- 03604S) and by the project Sustainability for the National Institute of Mental Health (LO1611), with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the NPU I program No conflict of interest.