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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Sex doll
• love doll
• sexuality research
• qualitative
• mixed methods

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Data availability statement

To ensure transparency of the analysis, readers can find the datasheet including the demographics, quantitative measures, and number of codes, the coding system, the interview guideline in the online repository (https://osf.io/xqgz8/?view_only=1f39551ffe9245d6b9742984d7d3c88e). The interview transcripts and the answers to the open-ended questions are not made public to secure participants’ anonymity.

Notes

1 Reddit is a website with all kinds of different communities (reddit.com). Among those are a few about sex dolls.

2 Discord provides private chat rooms in which participants can share media and messages (discord.com).

3 The link to the repository is https://osf.io/xqgz8/?view_only=1f39551ffe9245d6b9742984d7d3c88e.

4 To ensure anonymity of the participants, we altered all personal data, such as names, professions, cities of residence, and doll names.

5 The quotes were translated into English from German by the first author.

6 Reborn baby dolls are lifelike baby dolls, community members mostly female.