An online survey of owners of sex dolls in multiple world countries showed that they were less prone to sexual aggression compared to persons who do not own sex dolls. They were also more likely to see women as unknowable, the world as dangerous, and to have lower sexual self-esteem. The study was published in the Journal of Sex Research.
Sex dolls are realistic-looking silicone dolls created to be used for sexual purposes. They are generally seen as a controversial topic, gaining an increasing amount of public attention. The dolls are sometimes made to true likeness of real persons, like adult film stars.
While the ownership and use of sexual toys is nothing new, other types of sexual toys are not made to resemble complete human beings or even real persons in the same way sexual dolls are. Due to this, the emergence of realistic sex dolls has led to a lot of debate about the ethics of their use. This was particularly the case for sex dolls resembling children. There have even been convictions for the ownership of such dolls, although those prosecuted were also found to possess child sexual exploitation materials, not only sex dolls resembling children.
Opinions in the academic and public debate on sex dolls ranges between the view that sex doll ownership could reduce the incidence of sexual aggression among those prone to it and the view that the commercial availability of realistic sex dolls reinforces the objectification of women. However, most studies of sex toys focused on women’s uses of such toys and on their use in masturbation and sexual exploration. No previous studies focused on sex dolls and their owners.
With this in mind and the goal to explore the psychological characteristics of sex doll owners, study author Craig A. Harper and his colleagues conducted an online survey of 158 owners of sex dolls. They also surveyed an additional 135 people who do not own sex dolls for comparison. The majority of sex doll owners in the study were from the United States (87) and the United Kingdom (33). The average age was 38 years, but there was very large variation in age between participants.
Eight-eight participants who owned sex dolls were single, 25 were married and 12 reported being in a relationship. Thirty-two were divorced. Only participants who reported owning at least one adult-like sex doll were included in the group of sex doll owners.
The survey collected demographic data about the participants. This was followed by doll ownership related questions that asked participants to rate sexual and emotional reasons for owning dolls and list any other reasons they had for owning them. Participants completed assessments of sexual aggression proclivity, sexual fantasies about sexual coercion and sadism, disordered personality traits (the Personality Styles inventory), emotional functioning (The Positive and Negative Affect Scale), and attachment styles (the State Adult Attachment Measure).
Researchers also assessed the so-called offense supportive cognition, i.e., acceptance of views that see women as sex objects (e.g., “If a woman wears revealing clothes, she is trying to arouse men”), sexual entitlement (e.g., “I am free to do what I like with a woman in the bedroom”), seeing the world as a dangerous place (e.g., “People are so unpredictable and untrustworthy”), women as unknowable (e.g., “Most women cannot be trusted”), and uncontrollability of the male sex drive (e.g., “The male sex drive can turn a good man bad”). Participants who were not doll owners completed all assessments and questionnaires except those related to sex doll ownership and use.
Compared to participants who did not own sex dolls, sex doll owners were more often single or divorced and less often in a relationship or married. Participants from the control group tended to have sex with a partner more often than sex doll owners – 4.5 as opposed to 2.6 times per month on average. Sex doll owners reported having sex with their dolls 11 times per month on average. Interestingly, 39% of participants from the control group expressed interest in sex dolls.
On average, sex doll owners reported having 3.32 sex dolls. Sexual gratification was the highest rated reason for owning a sex doll. Sex doll owners were more prone to see women as unknowable, as sex objects and scored higher than the control group on sexual entitlement. On average, borderline personality styles were less common among sex doll owners.
When differences in other assessed personality characteristics were statistically controlled, results showed that sex doll owners had lower sexual aggression proclivity than members of the control group. They also had lower sexual self-esteem. On the other hand, they tended to have more pronounced obsessive-compulsive personality style.
“To conclude, this first psychological investigation of sex doll owners appears to support the view that doll ownership is a functional response to a history of poor quality or broken relationships, which in turn are possibly attributable to various beliefs about the unknowability of potential sex partners, less secure attachment styles, and poorer than average levels of sexual self-esteem,” the researchers wrote.
“Contrary to sociological and legal arguments about the increased risk of sexual aggression, we found no evidence of an increased risk of sexual aggression among the sex doll owners in our sample. This is in spite of comparatively higher levels of offense-supportive cognitions, suggesting a potential protective quality to doll ownership in relation to sexual aggression.”
The study gives first insights into the psychological significance of sex doll ownership. However, it should be taken into account that the study was based on self-reports and that the number of participants in the study was relatively small. Additionally, the study design did not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be made.
The paper, “Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls”, was authored by Craig A. Harper, Rebecca Lievesley, and Katie Wanless.
