The Ultimate High: Sexual Addiction and the Bug Chasing Phenomenon

This study sought to explain the existence of a controversial subculture of gay men, a group whose main attribute is an active desire to voluntarily contract HIV. The following research reasons “bug chasing” as being symptomatic of sexual addiction. A quasi-randomized survey of personal advertisements of HIV-negative bug chasers and barebackers—gay men who intentionally eschew condom use without the desire to seroconvert—revealed that chasers were: (a) considerably different from their barebacker counterparts regarding paraphiliac activities, and (b) significantly more likely than barebackers to rank higher on behavioral and psychological measures of sexual addiction.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Gerulf Rieger, without which this study could not have been possible.

Notes

∗p < .001. Very passive = 1. Very aggressive = 5. Independent sample t-test for self-aggressiveness: (M diff = −.392, SD _pooled = 1.015), t(262) = −3.129, d = −.386, p < .001. Independent sample t-test for partner-aggressiveness: (M diff = .419, SD _pooled = .82), t(252) = 4.048, d = .511, p < .001.

∗∗Different at p < .001. ∗Different at p < .005. For principle components of these factors, see Table 1.