Academic Survey - Help us to address myths about doll owners

Sian_E · Post by **Sian_E** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 5:08 am

Hi everybody,

As few months ago I posted a link on here to an ongoing survey of doll owners. We have so far had a good response, and have interviewed several members of the forum too. I'm reposting to see whether there are any other people who would be willing to take part in the survey, which takes about 20 minutes to complete.

As I’m sure you are aware, recently there has been a lot of media speculation regarding people who own sex/love dolls. However, there is a lack of scientific research to back or refute the claims made by the media. This is where this study comes in - it is an exploratory study looking at those who own sex/love dolls, and how they express their sexuality. Please note that you will be asked about your sexual interests and fantasies, and some questions do ask you to consider some instances that some people might find to be sexually coercive. However, this research is being conducted in a completely non-judgemental manner, and your responses are 100% anonymous (IP tracking is turned off, and you will never be asked to identify yourself, other than providing your sex and age for descriptive reasons). My colleagues and I have made no assumptions about what our results may say. The inclusion of all questions is tied directly to media myths and stories about people who own sex/love dolls, and therefore we aim to provide an answer and response to each of these points. I therefore ask that your respond as honestly as possible – this research is all about telling your story. Please note that a sample of people who do not own sex/love dolls are also being surveyed in order for us to compare groups.

I have previously written about why doll ownership should not be stigmatized, and about the importance of this research. You can read about this here: https://medium.com/@CraigHarper19/lets- ... f9be2e6198

I also have a track record of defending doll ownership, as can be seen in the following Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/CraigHarper19/statu ... 2744115202. There are always some suspicions about a survey such as this, but please be assured that I and the rest of the research team are simply interested in portraying this community in an accurate and fair way.

I would be extremely grateful if you could spare around 20 minutes of your time to complete my anonymous survey (the link is below). If you are interested in participating, please click the link below. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here, or you can send an email directly to me (craig.harper@ntu.ac.uk).

To take part, you should be aged over 18 and have English as your first (or a fluent) language.

https://ntupsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/ ... aXpJW2ldrf

Again, I understand the apprehension that some may have about surveys such as these. However, please be assured that this survey assumes nothing about those who own sex dolls. In fact, the survey was motivated by a frustration that media outlets represent doll ownership in a way that assumes sexual risk. As I suggest above, the only way to directly address these concerns or representations is to ask about them in a very direct way. For this reason, I would urge you not to give up on the survey after seeing questions that may lead to discomfort, and to answer them in an honest way. It is only by doing this that we can tell your stories, and address these issues for you within the broader literature. Please do not assume that this research makes any judgement of people who own dolls. If anything, we come from a place of support and wish to be able to represent this community in a way that is less emotional and more evidence-led.

We take the view that somebody having 'atypical' sexual interests and attractions is not a direct indicator of risk. Instead, we need to understand how and why these attractions translate into risk. The reason for some questions in this survey that relate to age of attraction and sexual aggression is that we are collecting data on a range of websites and forums, including sites for individuals who are minor-attracted. Again, we are not making any assumptions about doll owners, but these questions simply reflect our range of data collection methods.

We are also running interviews if you would also (or rather) speak to somebody about your experiences. These are also anonymous. If you would like information about these, please reply to this post.

Thanks very much in advance.

Craig Harper
(Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, UK)

david 68 · Post by **david 68** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 5:22 am

why a survey?...... i don't think its that important. What the issue of us gurl dolls having relations with an human being? Its doll normal.

Post by **Rock13** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:22 am

I've already done it and participated in a lengthy telephone interview. I posted my general impressions of the study in order to invite further discussion shortly thereafter, but I don't know whether you've seen that short thread:

https://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtop ... 4&t=116463

Also, isn't your team expected to deliver a presentation on sex dolls and sex doll ownership in Atlanta, GA this fall? I recently searched for any updates on your study and found a pdf document about it and can't seem to relocate it.

Post by **brigittes hubbie** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:53 pm

I´m very curious on the result, it was interesting to take part, you aren´t asked to reflect on your feelings every day, Right?

Chris

Sian_E · Post by **Sian_E** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:37 am

Hi - yes we presented on this survey and the interviews in Atlanta last November. You can access the slides here: https://osf.io/7pqjf/

We're on the final push now for participants in this - probably around 25-30 more responses are needed. Hopefully from the slides linked above it's now even clearer that we are doing this to promote an accurate picture, and with a view to stigma reduction. If you would like to take part, please see the survey link below.

https://ntupsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/ ... aXpJW2ldrf

Thank you for your help so far.

Craig

Grimmiekins · Post by **Grimmiekins** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:48 am

"Which age category are you sexually attracted to?
adults, children, both"

I do have to say I was surprised to see that on the survey

GOTE · Post by **GOTE** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:13 am

All I see is infographic garbage.
I love dolls, but that's my private business.
I also only own dolls that look older than 25+ and have a height not under 157cm.

Sian_E · Post by **Sian_E** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 7:03 am

Grimmiekins wrote:"Which age category are you sexually attracted to?
adults, children, both"

I do have to say I was surprised to see that on the survey

Thanks for this question. Our research is being divided into streams, whereby those who are attracted to adults and those who are attracted to children get slightly different variants of some questions. This will allow us to look at the characteristics of people who use adult-like dolls, as well as child-like dolls, in time.

Post by **Nescio50** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:36 pm

Please know that TDF does not allow discussing underage looking dolls - Rule 1 of the RoC.

MattUK · Post by **MattUK** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:33 pm

Wow, how generous of you to start from the position that doll ownership is 'not a direct indicator of risk'. Because, of course, that would definitely be the reasonable stance to start from.

How would you feel if someone asked you to fill in a survey about why you like to eat apples and tried to sell it to you by saying "don't worry, I don't believe that most apple eaters are murderers and I have a track record of telling people not to automatically think the worst of apple eaters."?

You're acting like there's something that actually needs defending here, and you're here to "help".

Post by **Nescio50** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:51 pm

Taking the survey is voluntary. TDF Management vetted the request to post about this research on TDF. We do know that both the student and the university supervisor are trustworthy.

MattUK · Post by **MattUK** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:56 pm

I never said anything about them being untrustworthy, just obviously starting from a very biased position. Digging through their post history only highlights this.

I mean if you were doing a survey about female sex toy use and your survey was full of questions about paedophilia, self-harm and violent fantasies, how charitable would most people be about it? Just because it's voluntary doesn't mean it's shielded from criticism or comment.

BigJoeBuck · Post by **BigJoeBuck** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:43 pm

some pretty heavy questions but i'm sure no one would answer some of them completely honest

i took it

interesting questionnaire

MattUK · Post by **MattUK** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:51 pm

Is there a control group of "normal" people who are answering the same questions?

yougivelove · Post by **yougivelove** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:18 pm

MattUK wrote:I never said anything about them being untrustworthy, just obviously starting from a very biased position. Digging through their post history only highlights this.

I mean if you were doing a survey about female sex toy use and your survey was full of questions about paedophilia, self-harm and violent fantasies, how charitable would most people be about it? Just because it's voluntary doesn't mean it's shielded from criticism or comment.

I haven't taken the survey, but questions along those lines could actually help paint a nicer picture of sex doll owners. The topics you posted above are uncomfortable, but for whatever reason they are brought up in relation to sex doll owners by the general public. By asking questions about these topics, and showing that doll owners are not brought to dolls because they are interested in these topics, the survey could help to illustrate that doll owners are by and large normal people, just like non doll owners.