Notes on the Kinsey Scale

Abstract

Scholars are familiar with the 7 points of the Kinsey Scale (KS)—whole integers, 0 to 6—but are unaware of several facts about the KS. First, most ratings were not self-ratings, but assigned by interviewers after the interview. Second, there was an X category given to individuals who did not respond sexually to either heterosexual or homosexual stimuli. Third, part of the subsample with extensive homosexual experience was asked a specific self-rating question. Sometimes this self-rating resulted from a brief discussion between interviewer and interviewee; occasionally the self-rating was overriden by the interviewer. Finally, even though the choices presented to an interviewee were the familiar 0 to 6, intermediate values—such as “1–2” or “4–5”—were permitted. Such intermediate self-ratings often occurred with frequencies exceeding those for the neighboring round numbers. Thus, the detailed psychometric properties of the original KS remain to be established.

KEYWORDS:

• Kinsey Scale
• self-rating
• sexual orientation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James D. Weinrich

James D. Weinrich, PhD, is currently the editor of the Journal of Bisexuality. He collaborated with Fritz Klein on some innovative studies of bisexuality in the early years of the journal.