New BDSM research reveals links between sexual roles, relationship hierarchy, and social standing

A new study explores how sexual preferences for dominance and submission relate to an individual’s general position in society and their behavior toward others outside of intimate activity. The research found that a person’s tendency toward submission in everyday life is strongly connected to experiencing subordination within their partner relationship, as well as holding a lower social status and less education. These findings offer insight into the vulnerability of some practitioners of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism (BDSM), suggesting that interpersonal power dynamics are often consistent across life domains. The research was published in Deviant Behavior.

Researchers, led by Eva Jozifkova of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, aimed to clarify the complex relationship between sexual arousal by power dynamics and a person’s hierarchical behavior in daily life. Previous academic work had established that a person’s dominant or submissive personality often aligns with their sexual preferences. However, it remained uncertain whether the hierarchical roles people enjoy in sex translated directly into their conduct with their long-term partner outside of the bedroom, or how they behaved generally toward people in their community.

Many people who practice BDSM, often distinguish between the roles they adopt during sex and their roles in a long-term relationship. Some maintain a slight hierarchical difference in their relationships around the clock, while others strictly limit the power dynamic to sexual play. Given the variety of patterns, the researchers wanted to test several ideas about this alignment, ranging from the view that sexual hierarchy is merely playful and unrelated to daily life, to the perspective that sexual roles reflect a person’s consistent social rank.

The study sought to test whether an individual’s tendency to dominate or submit to others reflected their sexual preferences and their hierarchical arrangement with their partner. The concept being explored was whether a person’s position in the social world “coheres” with their position in intimate relationships and sexual behavior.

The researchers collected data using an online questionnaire distributed primarily through websites and social media forums geared toward practitioners of BDSM in the Czech Republic. The final analysis included data from 421 heterosexual and bisexual men and women who actively engaged in these practices with a partner.

Participants completed detailed questions about their socioeconomic status, education, age, and, importantly, their feelings of hierarchy during sexual encounters and in their ongoing partner relationships outside of sexual activity. To measure their general tendency toward submissiveness or dominance in daily life toward others, the researchers used a modified instrument called the Life Scale.

The Life Scale assessed an individual’s perceived hierarchical standing, based on how often they experienced feelings of subordination or felt their opinions were disregarded by others. The higher the score on this scale, the more submissive the person reported being in their interactions with people generally.

The researchers separated participants into groups based on their sexual arousal preference for dominance (Dominant), submissiveness (Submissive), both (called Switch), or neither (called Without). To analyze how these various factors affected the Life Scale score, a statistical method known as univariate analysis of variance models was employed. This method allowed the researchers to examine the influence of multiple variables simultaneously on the reported level of submissiveness in everyday life.

Analyzing the self-reported experiences of the participants, the study found a noticeable alignment between preferred sexual role and general relationship dynamics for many individuals. Among those who were sexually aroused by being dominant, 55 percent reported experiencing a feeling of superiority over their partner outside of sexual activity as well. Similarly, 46 percent of individuals sexually aroused by being submissive also experienced subordination in their relationship outside of sex. This shows that for nearly half of the sample, the preferred sexual role did extend partially into the non-sexual relationship.

For the group who reported being aroused by both dominance and submissiveness, the Switches, the pattern was different. A significant majority, 75 percent, reported experiencing both polarities during sexual activity. However, outside of sex, only 13 percent of Switches reported feeling both dominance and submissiveness in their relationship, while half of this group reported experiencing neither hierarchical feeling in the relationship. This suggests that the Switch group is less likely to carry hierarchical dynamics into their non-sexual partnership.

Experience of dominance and submission in sex was reported even by people who were not primarily aroused by hierarchy. More than half of those in the Without group, 60 percent, experienced such feelings during sex. Significantly, 75 percent of this group did not report feeling hierarchy in their relationship outside of sex.

In general, individuals who were aroused by only dominance or only submissiveness experienced the respective polarity they preferred more often in sex than in their relationships. The experience of the non-preferred, or opposite, polarity during sex and in relationships was infrequent for the Dominant and Submissive groups.

The main statistical findings emerged from the analysis linking these experiences to the Life Scale score, which measured submissiveness in interaction with all people, not just a partner. The final model revealed that several factors combined to predict higher levels of submissiveness in daily life.

Respondents who felt more submissive toward others were consistently those who reported experiencing subordination in their non-sexual relationship with their partner. This higher level of submissiveness was also observed in individuals who did not report feelings of superiority over their partner, either during sex or in the relationship generally.

Beyond partner dynamics, a person’s general social standing played a powerful role. Individuals who reported higher submissiveness toward others had lower socioeconomic status, lower education levels, and were younger than 55 years of age.

The effect of experiencing submissiveness in the partner relationship was particularly potent, increasing the measure of submissiveness toward other people by two and a half units on the Life Scale. Conversely, experiencing feelings of dominance in the relationship or during sex decreased the Life Scale score by about 1.4 to 1.5 units, indicating less submissiveness in daily life.

The researchers found that gender was not a decisive factor in predicting submissiveness in this model, suggesting that the underlying hierarchical patterns observed apply across both men and women in the sample. The findings overall supported the idea that a person’s hierarchical position in their intimate relationship is related to their hierarchical position in society, aligning with the “Social Rank Hypothesis” and the “Coherence Hypothesis” proposed by the authors. This means that, contrary to some popular notions, sex and relationship hierarchy do not typically function as a “compensation” for an individual’s status in the outside world.

The research points to the existence of a consistent behavioral pattern linked to tendencies toward dominance or submissiveness in interpersonal relationships that seems to be natural for some people. The researchers suggest that because power polarization in relationships and sex can be eroticizing, it should be practiced with consideration, especially given the observed link between submissiveness in relationships and lower social status in general. They stress the importance of moderation and maintaining a return to a non-polarized state, often referred to as aftercare, following intense sexual interactions.

The researchers acknowledged several limitations inherent in the study design. Since the data were collected solely through online platforms popular within the BDSM community, the sample may not fully represent all practitioners. People with limited internet access or older individuals may have been underrepresented. The Life Scale instrument, while simple and effective for an online survey, provides a basic assessment of hierarchical status, and future research could employ more extensive psychological measures.

Because the study focused exclusively on practitioners of BDSM, the researchers were unable to compare their level of general life submissiveness with individuals in the broader population who do not practice these sexual behaviors. Future studies should aim to include comparison groups from the general population to solidify the understanding of these personality patterns.

Despite these constraints, the results provide practical implications. The researchers suggest that simple questions about hierarchical feelings in sex and relationships can be useful in therapeutic settings to understand a client’s orientation and potentially predict their vulnerability to external pressures or relationship risk. The clear relationship observed between the Life Scale and social status highlights that submissive individuals may already face a great deal of pressure from society, pointing to the need for social support.

The study, “The Link Between Sexual Dominance Preference and Social Behavior in BDSM Sex Practitioners,” was authored by Eva Jozifkova, Marek Broul, Ivana Lovetinska, Jan Neugebauer, and Ivana Stolova.