New research suggests that interest in BDSM (bondage, domination, and sadomasochism) is fairly common in Finland. The findings have been published in The Journal of Sex Research.
BDSM has been considered deviant and pathological in the past, but attitudes towards the practices have shifted in recent times. Despite this change in attitudes, the prevalence of BDSM is still unknown in several European countries. The authors of the new study sought to explore the prevalence of BDSM interest and BDSM-related activities in a large, population-based sample of Finnish adults.
“I had previously done my bachelor’s thesis on porn addiction and internet porn, so I had some previous knowledge regarding sex research,” said study author Markus Paarnio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. “I did my master’s thesis on BDSM, which got turned into this research article. BDSM has not been studied very much yet, although recently there has been a massive rise in research. That alone made this topic very appealing, because our dataset was so large and unique that this research added valuable knowledge to this field.”
For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 8,137 Finnish individuals who participated in the Genetics of Sexuality and Aggression (GSA) project, a longitudinal survey of twins and their siblings. As part of the survey, participants were asked a variety of questions regarding BDSM. They also completed assessments of personality traits.
Paarnio found that 37% of women and 23% of men reported that they had been sexually dominated at least once or more, while 25% of women and 32% of men reported that they had sexually dominated their partner at least once or more. In addition, 38% of women and 36% of men reported having an interest in BDSM.
“People might think that it is a very niche group of people,” but the findings highlight the “surprising commonness of interest displayed towards BDSM,” Paarnio told PsyPost.
The researchers also found that both men and women who were interested in BDSM tended to score higher on measures of openness to experience, but lower on measures of honesty-humility and conscientiousness. Among women, interest in BDSM was also associated with reduced agreeableness. But the effect sizes of these relationships “were negligible at best, thus offering no real practical implications.”
“It seems that the personality of people who are interested in BDSM do not differ from those who are not interested,” Paarnio said.
Non-heterosexual individuals were also found to be more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to practice and express interest in BDSM. “There are, to our knowledge, no current theories discussing why non-heterosexual individuals are so well represented in the BDSM community and why their practice and interest rates are higher than those of heterosexual individuals,” the researchers wrote in their study. “A speculative hypothesis could be that having a minority sexual orientation and being part of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community may influence one to be more open and exploring of one’s sexuality overall.”
Younger individuals were also more likely to report having an interest in BDSM.
But some important variables were not included in the dataset. “We did not have the education level of our participants, which is a pity because it has been included in many studies before and it would have been interesting to know if the previous results would have been replicated with our sample,” Paarnio said. “Previous studies point to the fact that BDSM practitioners are usually more educated than non-practitioners.”
Despite the new findings, Paarnio noted that scientists still have much to learn about the psychology of BDSM.
“To be addressed in future research is the prevalence in different countries,” the researcher explained. “The field would also benefit from a validated BDSM questionnaire because now it is sometimes hard to compare studies because there are differing definitions and classifications. Also of importance is understanding the underlying psychometric structure behind BDSM, because it is not known if BDSM interest and behavior is a factor of its own or a factor of paraphilic interests.”
The study, “The Prevalence of BDSM in Finland and the Association between BDSM Interest and Personality Traits“, was authored by Markus Paarnio, Nils Sandman, Marianne Källström, Ada Johansson, and Patrick Jern.