Science of BDSM Research Team

We are on the road headed to Indiana Leather & Kink Weekend! Who are we going to see there?

We will be at Indiana Leather & Kink Weekend this weekend!

Which workshop are you most excited about?

Master Nwachi will be presenting at SouthEast LeatherFest with the team this year! We’re looking forward to a fun time next weekend.

The Science of B**M Research Team is presenting at Beguiled! Conline 2024, an online hypnokink conference taking place June 21-23. Come see Brad, Hannah, and Taylor presenting three classes – The Complex Nature of Consent, (Sub)Space: The Final Frontier, and Q***r and Kinky: An Academic Adventure. Save $5 on registration with the coupon code for science!

Find out more on the Beguiled! website:

Beguiled Con – Urbs in Hypno: A City of Hypnosis As Beguiled will be virtual in 2024, running online from June 21-23, 2024. We want to offer virtual attendees the chance to support the artisans and crafters within our community by hosting a virtual marketplace for Beguiled! You, the Vendor, will fill out the following form telling us what you sell...

We have a few team members heading out to present at SouthEast LeatherFest, one of which is Jen! Who else are we going to see there?

Baby Dino saw the team patch on the Leather Quilt for the first time and insisted we take a picture with it so he could show off his matching vest! He has been having a blast meeting new people at SPLF and is very impressed with how many people have stopped by the table to take our research study. If you’re out at SPLF and haven’t met Baby Dino yet, there’s still time tonight and tomorrow!

Baby Dino (he/him) is wearing his team vest and this year’s participation pin which was modeled after him! He and his owner, Taylor (he/they), are on their way to South Plains Leatherfest now!

Have you seen our 2024 participation pins yet? They're dino-mite! If you want to add the 2024 pin to your collection, this weekend the team will be at Kinky Kollege AND South Plains Leatherfest!

Have you participated in the Many Kinks Project yet? This study is for Jen’s doctoral dissertation. B**M researchers and B**M community leaders from around the world are recruiting participants for this study with the goal of having worldwide representation in survey results. So far we have recruited participants from 39 countries!

The study is completely anonymous and should take about 20-40 minutes to complete. The questions will be about your B**M identity, questions about your personality characteristics, and your gender, age, and other demographics.

If you would like to participate, You can access the study at this link:
https://niu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82j4BKFasILFbNA

Please consider signing this petition in support of the Kinsey Institute. Indiana University plans to vote on this matter this Thursday, making this urgent.

Wording from the petition: On October 27, 2023, members of the Kinsey Institute learned of plans to move the Kinsey Institute (KI) from its longtime home at Indiana University, Bloomington and into a separate 501c3 organization. This proposal is dramatically different from past KI organizational structures, which were designed to protect sensitive research data and controversial materials from state control. While this proposal has been couched in terms of protecting KI from recent legislation, it actually makes KI vulnerable. There is no guarantee that members of KI would control the board of any new organization. This would leave KI vulnerable to dissolution if a hostile board takes control now or in the future. The plan would sever the Kinsey Institute from the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, which have always been a vital and inextricable part of the Institute. The Collections would remain under IU control.

We call on President Whitten, the Board of Trustees, and the IU administration to maintain the integrity of the Kinsey Institute and Collections as a unified organization at Indiana University.

You can sign the petition here:

This campaign needs you now Keep Kinsey Institute at Indiana University

We are conducting a study on the perception of alternative lifestyle community characteristics, specifically between both the B**M and Sw***er communities. To participate in this survey, you must be 18 or older and identify as a part of either community. By choosing to participate, you will complete an anonymous online survey that will take approximately 20 minutes. Thank you for your consideration!

Participation will be open until December 1st, 2023.

You can access the study at this link:

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

Hannah Tarleton just launched a survey about consent attitudes. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between individual differences, consent attitudes, and erotic activities. The study is completely anonymous and takes about 20 minutes to complete. To participate, you must be at least 18 years of age.

We have our 2023 participation pin available as a thank-you to everyone who participates. Names and addresses are collected separately from survey data to ensure that the survey data remain completely anonymous.

Participation will be open until October 20.

UPDATE 10/6: Thank you all so much for your participation! Due to the high volume of responses, we need to close data collection early. Sorry if you missed this one - we'll have more survey opportunities in the future

If you would like to participate, please follow this link:

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

We are excited to report that our first collaborative paper with the CAPRI research team of the University of Antwerp has been accepted for publication in the Journal of S*x Research! You can find a summary of the findings and a link to the full paper here:

(PDF) B**M in North America, Europe and Oceania: A Large-Scale International Survey Gauging B**M Interests and Activities. PDF | B**M is a widespread and highly prevalent yet stigmatized practice of intimacy and sexuality. In recent years, international interest in B**M... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

Brad Sagarin here. I just got back from the inaugural Guild of Deviated Standards conference, and it was fantastic! Thank you to the Producers, the Production Team, and all the wonderful people who attended the conference.

I had the opportunity to offer two classes at the conference: "The Prosocial Sadist" and "The Dimensions of Master/slave Relationships." As I typically do, I loaded them up with way too much research to cover in an hour and a half, so I wanted to follow up with a bibliography of the papers I cited for anyone who would like more information on the research:

Papers (and a film) cited in "The Prosocial Sadist":
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
- Buckels, E. E. (2012). The pleasures of hurting others: Behavioral evidence for everyday sa**sm. University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0073016
- Buckels, E.E., Jones, D.N., & Paulhus, D.L. (2013). Behavioral confirmation of everyday sa**sm. Psychological Science, 24, 2201-2209.
- Buckels, E.E., Trapnell, P.D., & Paulhus, D.L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97-102.
- Dubois, C. (Director, Star, Writer). (2000). The Pain Game [Film]. Academy of SM Arts. (available to stream at https://www.cleodubois.com/)
- Erickson, J. M., & Sagarin, B. J. (2021). The prosocial sadist? A comparison of B**M sa**sm and everyday sa**sm. Personality and Individual Differences, 176, 110723.
- Freud, S. (1905). Three Essays on the Theory of S*xuality. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume VII (1901-1905): A Case of Hysteria, Three Essays on S*xuality and Other Works, 123-246.
- Krafft-Ebing, R. V. (1965). Psychopathia sexualis (F. S. Klaff, Trans.). New York: Stein & Day (Original work published 1886).
- Miller, P., & Devon, M. (1995). Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns. Fairfield, CT: Mystic Rose Books.
- O'Meara, A., Davies, J., & Hammond, S. (2011). The psychometric properties and utility of the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS). Psychological Assessment, 23, 523-531. doi:10.1037/a0022400.
- World Health Organization(WHO). (1993). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. World Health Organization.

Papers cited in "The Dimensions of Master/slave Relationships":
- Casey, K. G., & Sagarin, B. J. (in preparation). Authority transfer relationships: Illuminating a consensual inegalitarian relationship form.
- Cutler, B., Lee, E. M., Cutler, N., & Sagarin, B. J. (2020). Partner selection, power dynamics, and mutual care giving in long-term self-defined B**M couples. Journal of Positive S*xuality, 6, 86-114.
- Dancer, P. L., Kleinplatz, P. J., & Moser, C. (2006). 24/7 SM slavery. Journal of Homosexuality, 50, 81-101.
- Kaldera, R. (2013). Building the team: Cooperative power dynamic relationships. Alfred Press.
- Money, J. (1986). Lovemaps: Clinical concepts of sexual/erotic health and pathology, paraphilia, and gender transposition in childhood, adolescence, and maturity. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.
- Townsend, L. (1972). The leatherman's handbook. New York: Olympia Press.

You can find copies of papers published by the Science of B**M Research Team at https://www.scienceofbdsm.com/publications-presentations.

The pleasures of hurting others : behavioral evidence for everyday sa**sm Past research on malevolent personalities has centered on subclinical psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which together comprise the Dark Triad of personality. The present research introduces everyday sa**sm—-a dispositional tendency to take pleasure in others’ suffer

We are excited to return to the Southwest!

One of our teammates, Randal, demonstrated different uses for ChatGPT, including this AI-generated request for a Dr Seuss style poem discussing our paper on the hook pull ritual during the Dance of Souls. You can find the full length, non-Dr Seuss version at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153126

This weekend Taylor and Brad will be presenting "The Egalitarian Monogamist and Other Embarrassing Identities: Studies of Consent and Stigma within the B**M Community" at the C2C - CARAS at CLAW Conference.

We have adopted a new team mascot, this cute pig, but we don't have a name for them yet! We recently collected some name ideas at Kinky Kollege last weekend, but we want to give more people the opportunity to submit name ideas! Let us know what you think the name should be!

We have a new survey available!

We are excited to announce our first collaborative study with the research team headed by Dr. Manuel Morrens of the University of Antwerp! We are big fans of Dr. Morrens and his colleagues’ work including their research on the prevalence of B**M fantasies and activities that we regularly cite in our presentations and papers (“Fifty Shades of Belgian Gray: The Prevalence of B**M-Related Fantasies and Activities in the General Population” by Lien Holvoet, Wim Huys, Violette Coppens, Jantien Seeuws, Kris Goethals, and Manuel Morrens published in The Journal of S*xual Medicine in 2017).

Study Description and Link:

In recent years, researchers have focused increasing attention on B**M, discovering that a substantial minority (or even a majority) of people fantasize about or participate in B**M and that B**M activities produce increases in couple bonding and measurable altered states of consciousness. However, no research to date has explored international and cultural differences in B**M interests and practices.

In a joint effort between the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and Northern Illinois University (USA) we are conducting a study to explore how nationality and culture impact B**M fantasies and activities, and how B**M interests are related to other types of sexual fantasies.

The study is completely anonymous and takes about 25-30 minutes to complete. The questions will be about yourself, your interests, and your experiences. The survey will be open until the end of February, 2022.

If you would like to participate, please follow this link:

https://uantwerpen.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bvCM7jZiTGZAkU6

Please note: Because this is a collaborative project, we were not able to link to the pin request form at the end of the survey. We would, however, be delighted to send you a 2022 participation pin as a thank you for your participation. As always, names and addresses are collected separately from survey data to ensure that the survey data remain completely anonymous. Once you have completed the survey, please follow this link to request a pin:

https://niu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Sp4UZSMnFoy9F4

Thank you for your consideration and support!

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.