Sex Doll Ownership: An Agenda for Research

Public Stigmatizing Reactions Toward Nonoffending Pedophilic Individuals Seeking to Relieve Sexual Arousal

People with pedophilia (PWP) can deal with their sexual desires by relieving sexual arousal without sexually exploiting children. Study 1 investigated whether public reactions toward nonoffending pedophilic men are affected by their strategies to relieve sexual arousal (nonsexual pictures vs. child sex dolls) or to reduce their sex drive via testosterone lowering medication in legally nonproblematic ways. A sample of German-speaking participants (N = 143) read three vignettes describing PWP using either of these strategies. Participants' (59.4% females) mean age was 39.7 (SD = 15.6). Although no significant difference was detected between the nonsexual pictures and sex dolls conditions on cognitive (except for dangerousness), affective, and behavioral levels, both consistently elicited more stigmatizing reactions than the testosterone-lowering medication condition. To investigate if this effect was driven by disapproving any relief of sexual arousal or the use of actual child stimuli in particular, Study 2 (N = 151) added two conditions with PWP using adult child-like stimuli to relieve sexual arousal: adult-as-schoolgirl porn and adult partner with childlike appearance. Here, Participants' (57.6% females) mean age was 28.0 (SD = 13.3). Results indicate that stigmatization was driven by disapproving the use of child stimuli rather than the relief of sexual arousal in general. Individuals with a sexual interest in children face strong stigmatizing reactions, which are only alleviated when they are described as undergoing treatment lowering sex drive or - to a lesser extent - being able to mate with an adult partner or using porn with adult actors posing as schoolgirls.

Perspectives, Treatment Goals, and Approaches of Prevention-Specialist Mental Health Professionals in Working With Clients Attracted to Children

The provision of effective mental health services to individuals attracted to children is rapidly expanding. However, these services have not yet been integrated into general mental healthcare systems and are mainly offered by organizations that predominantly provide services to child sexual abuse perpetrators. Little is known about the perspective, treatment goals, and approaches employed by prevention-specialist mental health professionals when working with clients attracted to children. To address this gap, we used purposive sampling to recruit 10 practitioners who had experience of working in prevention settings with clients attracted to children. After conducting semi-structured interviews and analyzing data through interpretative phenomenological analysis, we identified three main themes and four subthemes within the data. While most participants believed that attraction to minors is unmodifiable or doubted the possibility of modifiability, this belief did not necessarily manifest in their practice. Participants stressed the importance of finding safe alternatives for clients and highlighted the significance of accessing evidence-based information on alternative sexual outlets, such as sex dolls. One overarching theme that emerged across all themes and within participants' accounts was the concern of escalation, indicating a fear that pedophilic fantasies or alternative sexual outlets such as sex dolls could potentially lead to sexual offenses. The findings shed light on the approach of prevention-specialist mental health professionals in working with clients attracted to children and may be used to inform future intervention plans to facilitate service provision to this population.

Are Gender Identities and Gender Ideologies Associated with the Variety and Type of Owned Sex Toys? Evidence from a Large Italian Sample of Cisgender Individuals

Research on the use of sex toys has been primarily performed from a medical perspective, while there is still limited research from a psychosocial perspective. To bridge this gap, in this study we examined whether some psychosocial variables might be linked to sex toy ownership in a sample of 3960 Italian (cisgender men and women) sex toy buyers. More specifically, we investigated the association between gender identities and ideologies and the variety and types of sex toys owned. Based on the data, we detected two dimensions underlying the ownership of sex toys: (1) orientation to owning kinky sex toys and (2) orientation to owning clit-oriented sex toys. Results showed that benevolent sexism and gender system justification were negatively correlated with owning clit-oriented toys. Moreover, strongly gender-identified participants owned a small variety of different toys and preferred toys that were designed to stimulate the vagina or clitoris over less commonly-used toys. No significant correlation between feminist identification and sex toy type owned was found when gender identification was taken into account. These results suggest that the owning of sex toys might be associated with traditional gender ideology and the strength of gender identification.

Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

With the Internet allowing consumers easy access to fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM), it is becoming increasingly important to understand the context of their use among specific populations. Of particular, social, clinical, and legal interest is FSM use by people who are attracted to children and whether this may have a risk-enhancing or protective impact on their likelihood of committing a contact or non-contact sexual offence.

RECENT FINDINGS

There is a lack of data currently available in relation to the use of FSM by those with sexual attractions to children. Evidence from allied areas appears to show no meaningful associations between FSM use and sexual aggression. We propose a novel research program and some initial research questions that provide a theoretical framework for more evidence-based inquiry on FSM use by people who experience attractions to children.

Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls

The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly controversial social issue over the last five to ten years, with many in society (and academia) calling for the criminalization of such dolls. At the root of these calls is the implicit (and often explicit) assumption that sex doll ownership contributes to increases in negative social attitudes toward women, and sexual offense risk among doll owners. However, there are yet to be any empirical examinations of these claims. In this work we compared the psychological characteristics and comparative sexual aggression proclivities of sex doll owners (n = 158) and a non-owner comparison group (n = 135). We found no substantive differences in most psychological traits. Doll owners scored lower than comparators in relation to sexual aggression proclivity. They were, however, more likely to see women as unknowable, the world as dangerous, and have lower sexual self-esteem. They also had more obsessive and emotionally stable personality styles. We conclude that there is no evidence that sex doll owners pose a greater sexual risk than a non-owning comparison group, before highlighting the need for more evidence-informed social debates about the use of sex dolls in modern society.

Is the Anthropomorphization of Sex Dolls Associated with Objectification and Hostility Toward Women? A Mixed Method Study among Doll Users

Both the ownership and development of sex dolls and robots are passionately debated, with skeptics suspecting that their increasing human-likeness and the accompanying anthropomorphization (i.e., attributing human-likeness) reinforce the objectification of, and hostility toward, women. As empirical data are largely lacking, we scrutinized this hypothesis in a pre-registered study among doll owners (N = 217), comparing two user groups: "toy group" (n = 104; doll as sex toy) and "partner group" (n = 113; doll as partner). We related their objectification tendencies (i.e., seeing women merely as objects, e.g., to promote sexual desire) as well as their hostility toward women, to the anthropomorphization of their doll. Additionally, we collected qualitative data on how participants perceived their doll usage affected their attitudes toward women. The partner group expressed greater levels of hostility and anthropomorphization, moderate in magnitude. Objectification mediated the influence of anthropomorphization on hostility and a higher percentage described a change in attitudes toward women in response to doll use. These data provide the first empirical evidence that the tendency to anthropomorphize dolls is related to negative attitudes toward women. Given the ongoing development of sex robots designed to surpass dolls in human-likeness and anthropomorphization, this finding seems highly significant.

Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls

There is a fervent social debate ongoing that relates to the ownership of child-like sex dolls. On the one hand, some proponents of dolls suggest that they offer a safe sexual outlet for minor-attracted people (MAPs) and could be used in efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children. On the other side of the debate, child-like dolls are seen as articles that sexualize children, encourage deviant fantasies, and increase offending risk. To date, no empirical analyses have been undertaken with people who own such dolls. In this paper, we present data from child-like sex doll owners (n = 85) and MAPs who do not own dolls (n = 120) recruited from online forums visited by people who own sex dolls or forums for people with sexual attractions to children. Specifically, we compared their psychological characteristics and proclivities for sexual aggression. Among non-owners, 79.2% of participants declared an interest in owning a sex doll, which is higher than the 20-40% rate reported in adult-attracted samples of non-owners. We found few differences between the groups on most personality variables, with doll owners being less antisocial and anxiously attached than non-owners, but exhibiting more schizotypal traits. Related to offending proclivities, doll ownership was associated with lower levels of sexual preoccupation and self-reported arousal to hypothetical abuse scenarios, but higher levels of sexually objectifying behaviors and anticipated enjoyment of sexual encounters with children. We discuss these data in relation to a functional model of child-like sex doll ownership among MAPs.

A Thing like a Human? A Mixed-Methods Study on Sex Doll Usage

Sex dolls have evolved over the last decades and are getting more popular. Whether sex doll ownership should be protected as a sexual right that facilitates sexual health or whether its usage might be harmful to women and society is vividly discussed. In this polarized debate, empirical research is scarce and possible differentiations in the psychological functions of sex dolls remain nearly unknown. To further explore sex doll ownership, this study conducted five in-depth interviews with sex doll users and collected 131 written reports on sex doll ownership in an online survey with open and closed questions. In a mixed-methods approach, the data was then analyzed using Mayring's Qualitative Content Analysis and quantitative measures. Although the demographics of sex doll users are homogenous (single heterosexual males), results indicate that the use is divers. Sex dolls are mostly used as masturbatory aid, as substitutes for human partners, and as synthetic partners. We explore the similarities and differences between these kinds of usage and propose that a differentiation of sex doll use can enrich current research on social robotics, anthropomorphism, and misogyny.

Investigating the differences between females perceive same-gender and heterogender sex robots regarding adoption and intentions

The market for sex robots is on the rise with the development of human–computer interaction. However, most sex robots on the market are presented as male-friendly products. This issue may limit and hinder females' adoption and utilization of sex robots. This paper was to take females as the research subjects exploring and verifying several concerns based on previous theories and to conduct primary research and quantitative method to investigate: (i) how females differently perceive same-gender and heterogender sex robots; (ii) their attitudes and the knowledge or definition of sex robots; and (iii) their intention of adopting heterogender robots. This study confirmed several previous theories and provided new findings and insights. Females are more likely to feel threatened by the presence of same-gender sex robots. Their negative attitudes are related to the way that sex robots exist. They are jealous of same-gender sex robots; nevertheless, this should not be attributed to their negative perception of sex robots since they also have positive perceptions and intentions to adopt a sex robot. They define sex robots more as sexual products than as engaging in the prostitution industry.

Human-Robot Interaction and Sexbots: A Systematic Literature Review

At present, sexual robots have become a new paradigm of social robots. In this paper, we developed a systematic literature review about sexual robots (sexbots). To do this, we used the Scopus and WoS databases to answer different research questions regarding the design, interaction, and gender and ethical approaches from 1980 until 2020. In our review, we found a male bias in this discipline, and in recent years, articles have shown that user opinion has become more relevant. Some insights and recommendations on gender and ethics in designing sexual robots were also made.