A Survey of the United Kink-dom: Investigating Five Paraphilic Interest Groups and their Demographic and Psychological Correlates

Non-clinical paraphilic interests are not linked to psychopathology, but theirpsychological and demographic features are less understood outside of more commoninterests such as sadomasochism. We explored five paraphilic groups in the UK—BDSM, petplay, age play/ABDL, furries, and balloon fetishists—chosen for their prevalence, diversity,power dynamics, and varied activities. An anonymous online survey assessed demographics,role identity, behavioral engagement, psychological functioning, relational factors, andstereotypes related to sexual offending (N=470). There was high co-occurrence of paraphilicinterests, especially for men, with most participants reporting 2-3. BDSM interestscorrelated strongly with other power-related paraphilias. Men were more likely to take ondominant roles, women submissive roles, and nonbinary people switch roles. A minority didnot pair their interests with sex, especially pet players and furries. Groups were more likelyto have non-heterosexual, non-monogamous, and non-cisgender identities. They did notshow above-clinical levels of psychological distress but exhibited a higher prevalence ofautism traits. Relationship satisfaction correlated with shared paraphilic interests. Weakassociations were found between age play and pedophilic arousal and pet play/furries andzoophilic arousal, but this was only for a small minority. Limitations include a cross-sectionaldesign, largely white sample, and reliance on self-reported data.