Asexuality Psychology Research Report

[Rukin Vinter]

Here's the report I did for school, County and (soon) State Science Fair on asexuality. It took 1st Place in Psychology at school, and 2nd place in Team Life Sciences in L.A. County. There will be additions for State Science Fair, which I will publish later. (Note: My partner, Jennifer Lee, was in on the second round on the project, and is not a regular AVEN member. The writing is mine, the presentation and board design is both of ours. The document has been reformatted for posting purposes. This was written and presented without mentioning my being asexual or an active AVEN forum member. Graphs and charts could not be included in the post.)

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HUMAN ASEXUALITY

Report by Shain Neumeier and Jennifer Lee

ABSTRACT

Sexuality is everywhere in our culture, especially in modern times. From politics to entertainment, it’s nearly unavoidable. Most people equate physical and emotional intimacy as one and the same. There are three known “preferences” of how to express this intimacy, all based on the idea that the physical expression of love is the most important. However, a growing group, having only their experience and a sparse amount of research to cite, claims that there should be a fourth category, one of people who have no sexual preference at all. They call themselves asexual.

Asexuality, in biology, usually refers to the ability of an organism to reproduce without help. In terms of humans, however, there are a variety of definitions coming from different people who recognize the possibility of it, not all of them agreeing. The broadest and most generally agreed upon definition of an asexual is a person who experiences little or no sexual attraction, according to the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), the largest web community of asexual people.

There has been research done in other, non-sentient mammals related to asexuality. A recent study involving rats showed that certain male rats that were aggressive with other males showed no sexual interest in females when placed in the same cage with them. Follow-up studies on sheep showed similar results, that small percentages of rams and ewes showed no interest in one another, nor in members of the same sex. How much that can be applied to humans scientifically, though, is still in question.

Several terms are often confused with asexuality, which refers to naturally occurring disinterest in sex that involves no personal choice. Abstinence or celibacy, the conscious choice to not involve oneself sexually for religious or moral reasons, differs in this sense. Frigidity refers to emotional coldness or reserve, implying that lack of interest in sex translates to an inability to feel. Sexual aversion, or revulsion and/or fear related to sex, is classified as a disorder, but the difference is that the former causes a person distress, and it isn’t so much about a lack of desire than about a phobia related to the act. Asexuality is also confused with the inability to have sex (i.e., impotence), rather than a simple lack of desire.

There are already stereotypes related to asexuals, as well as theories as to what causes asexuality. People who don’t understand the concept are quick to jump to the conclusion that asexual people are secretly homosexual, asocial, mentally unstable, coming from broken homes, lonely and unwilling to admit it, overly religious, full of themselves, or some combination of these characteristics. Marijuana, Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism), certain forms of medication and abnormal IQ have also been cited as causes of asexuality, though these assertions are shaky.

The question of the validity of asexuality is hard to decide, as such a small percentage (roughly 1%) of the population is “asexual.” There are many factors, some nature and some nurture, that could contribute to a disinterest in sex, many of which will be discussed in this project.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to research asexuality, establish trends in the asexual community (with regards to religion, location, culture, gender identification, biological sex, marijuana use, Asperger’s syndrome, age, education, self-esteem and family background) and to uphold or debunk myths and attitudes regarding this little-known subject. Though we started out with the much broader and more difficult topic of trying to decide, scientifically, whether or not asexuality could be considered “natural” or whether it could be signs of a disorder or other problem, we had not the time, the background or the references to carry out such a task. However, the subject continued to interest us, so we decided to scale down the project to a more feasible task.

TIMELINE OF WORK DONE

Due to the fact that no timeline/daily log was required for the school science fair, nothing was taken note of in the first round of this project. This is the best we can provide in its place, with exact dates or periods given along side what was accomplished. We apologize for the inconvenience and any issues that could arise from these approximations.

Early Jan.: Preliminary research done, project considered.

10 Jan.: Proposal and letter of permission to John Emmanuel Shirajian, head of Science Department at Ribet Academy, written and submitted; project approved.

10 Jan. - 5 Feb.: Research done, articles collected, survey written, AVEN polls surveyed for possible future use.

5 Feb: Survey posted on Asexual Visibility and Education Network website.

5 Feb. - 26 Feb.: Gathering of poll results, occasional checks on the progress of the survey, updates to J.E. Shirajian, further article and forum research.

26 Feb. - 27 Feb.: Gathering of survey results, interpretation of data for survey and poll data written, first report completed.

9 Mar. - 10 Mar.: Ribet Academy 4th Annual science fair, “Human Asexuality” takes 1st place in the school Psychology division

13 Mar.: Armenian Science Olympiad, “Human Asexuality” does not place in the Biology category.

4 Apr.: Polls updated to reflect recent changes in percentages.

16 Apr.: Entire report updated to reflect new additions and the changes made to make sure all foreseeable possibilities are accounted for.

MATERIALS AND METHODS USED

Due to the fact that asexuality is so uncommon and that research done is sparse, face-to-face interviews, library visits and other such methods were simply unfeasible. Therefore, the experiment was carried out exclusively on the computer, for both research and survey/poll purposes, through the Internet. Various articles and papers on asexuality could be found online, as well as the largest known asexual community, AVEN (the Asexual Visibility and Education Network). In addition to this, we checked forums, discussion communities and other groups online for discussion of the subject hoping for more information, but instead came up with a large number of rumors and informal theories about the subject that were addressed in the project and either shown to have some or very little grounding in reality.

As to how the results will be shown, in addition to this report and the display board, we have a PowerPoint Presentation prepared for the Science Fair displaying what was done and discovered.

We started carrying out the research by looking through the few pieces of literature available on the subject, all of which are relatively recent due to the fact the subject has been obscure for a long time. After getting a grasp on what we were starting on, we posted a survey on AVEN, gathering responses over a period of 3 weeks. The survey was rather disorganized, and though we were able to use it (or rather, specific questions from it), we had to get the majority of data from various polls, also on AVEN, on a variety of subjects that were pertinent to the study. As we came upon new information on trends in the community (i.e., the relatively high rate of intersex people who consider themselves to be asexual), we did more specific research to find out about comparisons between it and the majority of the world. Having done all this, we compiled the research and analyzed the results of the polls and surveys to come up with the conclusion. The polls were updated after the school science fair to reflect the data based on the answers of new respondents, whereas the survey had not picked up any more responses.

POLLS ON ASEXUALITY (As of 4 APR 2005)

Prevalence of Theology - 67 respondents

Monotheist: 31% (21)

Atheist: 29% (19)

Pantheist: 7% (5)

Agnostic: 33% (22)

Religion – 145 respondents

Agnostic/Atheist/Humanist: 34% (50)

Deist: 1% (1)

Unitarian: 2% (2)

Scientologist: 1% (1)

Catholic/Protestant/Messianic Jew/Mormon: 23% (34)

Muslim: 1% (1)

Scientologist: 1% (1)

Jew: 4% (6)

Hindu: 1% (1)

Buddhist / Confucian / Taoist / Shinto: 3% (3)

Pagan (Wicca, Pantheist): 4% (7)

Other (Cults, Jainism, Zoroastrianist, Falun Gong, Bahaist): 25% (39)

Parent’s Relationship – 104 respondents

Still married: 65% (68)

Not married anymore: 30% (31)

They were never married: 5% (5)

Gender (internal sex) – 98 respondents

Masculine: 26% (25)

Feminine: 29% (29)

Bigendered: 32% (31)

No gender: 13% (13)

Biological sex – 150 respondents

Male: 30% (45)

Female: 66% (99)

Intersex/unclassifiable: 4% (6)

“Orientation” – 192 respondents

Hetero-asexual: 36% (70)

Homo-asexual: 14% (28)

Bi-asexual: 21% (40)

No orientation: 17% (33)

Other/changing attraction: 11% (21)

Romance Drive? – 42 respondents

Yes: 54% (23)

No: 43% (18)

Unable to answer: 3% (1)

Geographic location – 166 respondents

United Kingdom: 22% (36)

USA: 43% (72)

Eastern Europe: 1% (2)

Western Europe: 9% (15)

Africa: 0% (0)

Canada: 10% (16)

Other North American country: 2% (3)

South America: 2% (3)

Australia/South Pacific: 6% (11)

Middle East: 0% (0)

Other Asian country: 2% (3)

Other: 3% (5)

Asperger’s Syndrome – 39 respondents

Yes: 13% (5)

No: 46% (16)

Unsure/Possibly: 41% (18)

Marijuana use – 118 respondents

Yes: 35% (40)

No: 65% (78)

IQ – 92 respondents

(Note: IQ results are older, as updated version of the poll can't be found)

70-90: 0% (0)

90-110: 1% (1)

110-130: 17% (16)

130-160: 49% (45)

Don’t know/Don’t care: 33% (30)

Body Image (Female) – 43 respondents

Very negative: 5% (2)

Mildly negative: 35% (15)

Indifferent: 19% (8)

Mildly positive: 32% (14)

Very positive: 9% (4)

Body Image (Male) – 20 respondents

Very negative: 5% (1)

Mildly negative: 25% (5)

Indifferent: 45% (9)

Mildly positive: 20% (4)

Very positive: 5% (1)

Body image (Total, from other polls) – 63 respondents

Very negative: 5% (3)

Mildly negative: 32% (20)

Indifferent: 27% (17)

Mildly positive: 28% (18)

Very positive: 8% (5)

Highest Level of Education – 51 respondents

Some/Still in high school: 7% (4)

Completed high school: 4% (2)

Trades/Apprenticeship: 4% (2)

Some/still in college or university: 43% (22)

Completed college: 20% (10)

Masters/Working on MD: 15% (7)

PhD/Working on PhD: 7% (4)

Self-Declared Sociability – 107 respondents

Gregarious: 7% (7)

Fairly social: 38% (41)

Anti-social: 40% (43)

Misanthropic: 15% (16)

Age – 267 respondents

13-20: 33% (87)

21-30: 44% (119)

31-40: 13% (34)

41-50: 5% (14)

51-60: 4% (10)

61-70: 1% (3)

Over 70: 0% (0)

POLL ANALYSIS

The information provided from the polls was highly valuable (if not sometimes ambiguous) and, while some commonly-held beliefs about asexuality could be disproved by the results, other data from the polls shows that further research is needed, and/or that cultural, age-related and educational differences play a role in the amount to which people are aware or accepting of the possibility of asexuality, if not in its actual prevalence.

ASEXUALITY VS. CELIBACY: Religion

The polls on religion make clear that there is indeed a difference between asexuality and celibacy. In the smaller, broader-in-scope poll of 63 respondents, a majority were non-worshipping people, being either agnostic (33%) or atheist (29%), in comparison to the 38% who were either mono- or polytheist. This is not exactly mirrored by the second poll, as the respondent pool was larger and more specific options were offered. However, the non-believing/non-worshipping group still outnumbered Catholics, Protestants, Mormons and Jews combined, the former having 34% of the vote in comparison to the latter’s 23%, and, though atheists, humanists and agnostics were not in the majority in comparison to the faithful, they made up the largest single category. Also of note is that Buddhism, another religion sometimes associated with celibacy, was grouped together with other far-east religions that in total only received 3% of the vote. Meanwhile, Judaism, which encourages procreation even in its priesthood, had only 4% of the respondents as its followers. Admittedly, this poll has flaws (i.e., how many of the group noted above were Catholics as opposed to the number who were Protestants, what with the two’s different views on celibacy?), and this would require further research. However, the fact that so many asexuals consider themselves non-religious, or part of a cult or smaller religious group (29%) implies that religion and faith-based morality plays a small, if not nonexistent, part in one’s identity as an asexual.

ROMANCE AND ORIENTATION

Some asexuals consider themselves to have an “orientation” within asexuality, i.e., hetero-asexual, homo-asexual, bi-asexual, and, of course, a-asexual. This usually refers to their romantic and emotional preference for one gender or another. According to one poll, 54% of asexuals claim to have a “romance drive,” a need for non-sexual love, while 43% claim not to need such companionship (the other 3% simply couldn’t seem to decide). A poll that surveyed asexuals’ “orientation” revealed that hetero(a)sexuality is not as prevalent in this community as in the rest of the world. While homosexuals are assumed to make up about 2-3% of the human population at large, 14% of the 192-strong respondent pool say they prefer same-sex relationships, and even more, 21%, consider themselves to be “bi,” preferring neither over the other. A good 11%, astonishingly, says that their attractions change over time, and that they don’t fit into any of the above categories because of it. (The other 17% in said poll said that they had no interest in said relationships.)

SEX, GENDER AND ASEXUALITY

It would seem from the above-mentioned polls, and in fact the whole idea of asexuality, that gender and sex (the former being mentality, the latter being biology) would be not an issue in the asexual community. This is echoed in the polls, but not completely. A majority, 55% of respondents, identify with one gender or another (information as to whether or not it’s the one corresponding to their biological sex is not available), rather than with both or neither. Several things about the gender and sex polls are worth noting, however. The first is that, while the Intersex Society of North America asserts that approximately 1 out of 1500 to 1 out of 2000 people are born as intersex (neither male or female), 4%, or hundreds of times more than average in the general population, of asexuals checked “intersex” as being their biological sex. For this seemingly small percentage of the community, their biology (nature) could very well have a profound influence on their sexuality, and the societal influences related to gender (nurture) could further that. Secondly, while only 30% of respondents for the biological sex poll responded with identifying themselves as male, more than twice that labeled themselves female. Why this is would require further investigation (possibly an entire other project), especially when roughly equal amounts of people labeled themselves in the gender poll as being masculine or feminine (3% more people identified themselves as being feminine than did masculine). The 45% people who responded in the gender poll by saying that they didn’t identify with either traditional gender also would merit a great deal of study, especially as to whether their asexuality results in a significant lack of gender identification or vice-versa. Furthermore, another poll would be necessary to see what kind of overlap there was, in terms of corresponding or differing sex and gender identification as, a) Fewer people responded to the gender poll than the sex one, and B) Even if everyone who did reply to one replied to the other, there’s no way of knowing how each individual responded.

GEOGRAPHY AND THE PREVALENCE OF ASEXUALITY

Due to its disorganized format, the poll on ethnicity was not used here. However, the unequal geographic distribution of asexuals, according to a 166-person poll, was astounding. The industrialized nations and regions, led by the U.S. with an enormous 43% of the respondents, are the most asexual, if the poll is truly representative. However, when the entire continent of Africa has less asexuals present (0%, in fact) than the United Kingdom, with 22%, the validity of such a poll comes into question. The following theories might help to explain the reasons for this, though, again, an entire separate project would be needed to confirm two of the three:

-The countries with the most English speakers generally had the largest proportions of asexuality, according to the poll. This is probably resulting from the fact that a separate forum is given to non-English speakers.

-The more wealthy and industrialized a country, the more likely people will be to have computers with which to access such a poll. Some countries don’t have good systems of electricity, while others have populations that are too poor to afford such luxuries. Some fundamentalist-driven and totalitarian governments (i.e. Saudi Arabia) apparently have bans on internet use or the use of portions of the internet that go against the ideology of the ruling class.

-The more industrialized countries are generally the more liberal in terms of gender and sexual identification. Whereas the U.S., Canada, Britain and most of Western Europe are (generally more) open to nontraditional lifestyles, the religious and cultural views prevalent in such regions as the Middle East and Africa would make identifying as asexual less likely.

A cross-cultural comparison in asexuality, therefore, is not truly available here, because the poll most likely isn’t truly representative of the geographic face of asexuality.

IS ASEXUALITY CAUSED BY…?

Parental strife

Another surprise provided by the polls was that many of them had parents who were still married. A stereotype of asexuality is that they had “bad examples” of sexual relationships, provided from an unstable home life. However, whereas the divorce rate in the United States is at 50%, 65% of asexuals said that their parents were still married, while only 30% had divorced parents, and a minute 5% were illegitimate. Such an overwhelming majority would suggest that the stereotype is unfounded. However, one must take into the account that 1) some parents don’t divorce on principle, regardless of the state of the marriage, 2) several respondents commented that one parent had died while still married, and 3) such a broad question allows for a lot of variety.

Marijuana use

Low sex drive has been in some cases attributed to use of marijuana, as have other drugs. However, only a little more than a third of asexuals have actually used marijuana, according to one poll, and the poll did not take note on whether or not a person considered themselves asexual before or after doing the drug. (Note: There were options of how much drug use there had been, and how frequent it had occurred, which were too various and indistinct to use based on a given poll respondent’s interpretation.)

Asperger’s Syndrome

Asperger’s, a social disorder that is a mild, high-functioning form of autism, has also been tied to asexuality and delayed sexual development. Though only a small pool of respondents answered in a poll related to Asperger’s, the percentage that said that they indeed had Asperger’s (13%), is incredibly high in comparison to the 0.0036% of the general population who has the disorder. Another, even larger 41% said that they were “unsure” or that it was possible that they had the disorder. While 13% is not nearly enough to say that Asperger’s is a leading factor in asexuality, the fact that it’s hundreds of times more prevalent in this community than it is in the rest of the world suggests that it indeed does play a role.

High IQ

What the administrators of AVEN call “the myth of asexual superiority” is another one of the stereotypes not based on research but nonetheless prevalent. Many seem to think that without the “distraction” of sexual thoughts and feelings, one has time to focus on other things. Believe it or not, a poll of 92 respondents echo this sentiment: 63% of respondents report having an above-average IQ ranging from a 110 to a 160 (the poll didn’t keep track of IQs above this point), and no one answered that they had an IQ lower than 90. There seems to be a correlation, if indeed this poll is accurate, though a cause-and-effect relationship isn’t clear.

Poor self-esteem

Yet another informally cited cause of asexuality is low self-esteem, especially related to how one looks, that causes one to think that since they can’t find a lover, they don’t want one. However, in polls about body image taken with both males and females, most people in both categories rated themselves as having a moderately negative to moderately positive body image (with indifferent in between) rather than as holding any extreme views of themselves. In total, only 3 people out of 63, or 5%, said that they had a “very negative” body image, whereas 8% said that they had a “very positive” one. However, the number of people who said that they had a “mildly negative” body image was slightly more than was that of people who had a “mildly positive” view, with percentages of 32% to 28%. The main gender gap, when looking at the breakdown of men’s responses and women’s was that 45% of men, in comparison to 19% of women, were indifferent when it came to how they thought they looked, and that the amount of women who viewed themselves as ugly was 10% higher than that of men. The fact that more people had an indifferent or close-to-indifferent view of their bodies, rather than an extreme view one way or another, suggests that the physical side of oneself is not so much a cause of asexuality in that they obsess over it, but because it’s unimportant or of less importance to members of the asexual community.

Age/Experience

A minute few visitors to AVEN have suggested that asexuality is a “phase” that immature teenagers who feel socially awkward go through in an attempt to glorify their lack of sexual maturity by giving it a fancy name, and state that these people are too naïve and uneducated to see that they’re really just sexual like everyone else. An exact third of poll respondents are, in fact, in their teenage years (13-20). However, in the poll, only 7% of people were still in or had dropped out of high school, the exact same percentage of respondents who had or were working on a PhD. The largest portion of asexuals, according to the polls, are in their 20s (44%), and the number of people who declare themselves to be nonsexual starts to decline shortly after, with only 9% of respondents being over the age of 40. Education-wise, 63% of people are working on, dropped out a bit before or obtained a four-year college education, while 22% went farther than that (Masters and PhD) and 4% went to trade school. This generational and educational difference could be seen, instead of being the actual reality, as being a product of the way younger generations, especially college-educated people, tend to think of sexuality. Whereas senior citizens (60 or older) grew up in a time where sex was a private issue that was not discussed and was meant for the purpose of reproduction rather than for pleasure, today’s MTV culture puts a large pressure on young people to start dating, and society is more open to other persuasions than that of heterosexual monogamy. Liberal arts colleges, especially, are almost notorious for being socially progressive, both in terms of professors and students, and encourage both sexual exploration and diversity of orientations without prejudice, and provide more outlets and services for sexual minorities (i.e., straight-gay alliances, tolerance organizations) than do high schools. This could very easily lead to more college-educated people knowing about asexuality and being willing to label themselves as asexual.

Social ineptitude

The online slang dictionary urbandictionary.com used the sniping definition of AVEN as being a community of life’s losers, people who justify their sorry existence of living in their parents’ basements by “brainwashing” others to believe they’re part of a special category because they couldn’t fit in with others. This speaks for many other people, who view asexuals as either shy neurotics who can’t seem to get along with others or misanthropic narcissists who look down at everyone else. However, in labeling themselves, most asexuals declared themselves to be “fairly social” (38%) or “anti-social” (40%), with only 15% going so far as to label themselves “misanthropic.” The other 7% classified themselves as “gregarious.” As usual, the large majority stuck to a moderate response rather than an extreme one way or another, which could mean a host of things that would pertain more to individuals than the group at large.

SURVEY QUESTIONS

1) How long have you known you're asexual?

2) Have you been diagnosed with any sort of sexual disorder, mental or physical?

3) Have you been diagnosed with any sort of personality disorder?

4) Do you take any sort of medications? (If so, please list)

5) Have you ever felt sexually attracted to anyone of either gender?

6) Have you ever been in a sexual relationship?

7) If so, did you realize you were asexual during or after this relationship?

8) On a scale of 1-10, rate the stability of your parents' marriage.

9) Did you come from a family background other than traditional two-parent? If so, describe.

10) Have you or anyone in your family been sexually abused or assaulted?

11) Are you in anyway bothered by your asexuality?

12) Have you ever enjoyed or wanted sex?

13) Are you open to the idea that you'll find an enjoyable sexual relationship in the future?

14) Do you have any sexual interest in non-humans?

15) Do you consider yourself (choose all that apply):

Aromantic

Asocial

Androgynous

Aesthetically attracted to others

Sexually attracted, but not driven to act

16) Are you or were you a part of any religious organization that advocated chastity or celibacy?

17) Was there any physical or emotional abuse in your childhood home?

18) On a scale of 1-10, rate your own:

-Looks

-Social skills

-Sense of style

-Mental wellbeing

-Health

-Intelligence

19) Do you yourself see asexuality as being as valid an orientation as hetero, homo and bisexuality?

20) Please leave any extra information that you would think to be useful here.

SURVEY RESULTS

The survey went on for 3 weeks, from 5 February to 26 February, on the AVEN Questions and Answers forum board. There were 19 questions and one free response on the original survey, as shown on the questions page. Only select questions were used, for the following reasons:

-Not all the questions allowed for concise, clear answers that could be categorized.

-Many respondents didn’t give simple answers to simple questions.

-I abridged my project, making several questions unnecessary.

-The poll answered several of the questions in a more efficient way than did the survey.

Participants: 39

Questions used: 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18

Have you ever felt sexually attracted to anyone of either gender?

Yes: 15% (6)

No: 85% (33)

Have you ever been in a sexual relationship?

Yes: 18% (7)

No: 82% (32)

On a scale of 1-10, rate the stability of your parents’ marriage.

1: 7% (3)

2: 0% (0)

3: 3% (1)

4: 5% (2)

5: 5% (2)

6: 0% (0)

7: 3% (1)

8: 8% (3)

9: 13% (5)

10: 36% (14)

There was no marriage: 5% (2)

I don’t know: 15% (6)

Are you in anyway bothered by your asexuality?

Yes: 26% (10)

No: 74% (29)

Have you ever enjoyed or wanted sex?

Yes: 23% (9)

No: 77% (30)

(Yes includes people who said yes to one and no to the other)

Do you have any sexual interest in nonhumans?

Yes: 0% (0)

No: 100% (39)

Do you consider yourself (choose all that apply):

Aromantic: 28% (11)

Asocial: 33% (13)

Androgynous: 38% (15)

Aesthetically attracted to others: 77% (30)

Sexually attracted, but not driven to act: 10% (4)

On a scale of 1-10, rate your own:

Looks:

1: 0% (0)

2: 0% (0)

3: 2% (1)

4: 8% (3)

5: 23% (9)

6: 18% (7)

7: 28% (11)

8: 13% (5)

9: 3% (1)

10: 3% (1)

No response: 2% (1)

Social skills:

1: 2% (1)

2: 0% (0)

3: 8% (3)

4: 28% (11)

5: 18% (7)

6: 18% (7)

7: 13% (5)

8: 3% (1)

9: 5% (2)

10: 3% (1)

No response: 2% (1)

Sense of style:

1: 8% (3)

2: 8% (3)

3: 8% (3)

4: 8% (3)

5: 23% (9)

6: 15% (6)

7: 10% (4)

8: 8% (3)

9: 5% (2)

10: 5% (2)

No response: 2% (1)

Mental well-being:

1: 0% (0)

2: 5% (2)

3: 2% (1)

4: 10% (4)

5: 13% (5)

6: 13% (5)

7: 13% (5)

8: 8% (3)

9: 18% (7)

10: 13% (5)

No response: 5% (2)

Health:

1: 0% (0)

2: 0% (0)

3: 5% (2)

4: 5% (2)

5: 8% (3)

6: 8% (3)

7: 23% (9)

8: 20% (8)

9: 20% (8)

10: 8% (3)

No response: 3% (1)

Intelligence:

1: 0% (0)

2: 0% (0)

3: 0% (0)

4: 0% (0)

5: 2% (1)

6: 2% (1)

7: 13% (5)

8: 28% (11)

9: 33% (13)

10: 20% (8)

No response: 2% (1)

SURVEY ANALYSIS

The results of the survey taken on AVEN’s Question and Answer forum were not as surprising as those of the polls, and often concurred with them. The poll was taken for 3 weeks and 2 days, from the 5th to the 26th of February. It had 19 questions and a free response space provided. It got 39 responses over that period of time (not counting those who replied to other people’s posts). Only a select group of questions were used here, either because the others were too subjective, the respondents consistently missed the point or made their answers unclear, or because the polls answered certain questions better and provided for easier analysis.

DEBUNKING THE “BROKEN HOME ASEXUAL” MYTH

The survey backed up what the polls had to say about the stability of marriage between parents of asexuals. 36% said that their parents had a “perfect” marriage, a 10 on a 1-10 scale of stability. Less than 10% said that their parents’ relationship was less than a 6 on that scale. Furthermore, many noted that, though their parents had divorced early on, they had not been bitter or hateful about it, and some even said that their parents were still friends. The final piece of news in this is that only 2 people, or 5% of the respondents, said that their parents had never married. With both the polls and the survey stating that generally asexuals come from good, stable homes, it’s safe to say that the idea that asexuals simply haven’t had good examples set for them is unfounded.

ONCE ASEXUAL, ALWAYS ASEXUAL?

This would seem to be the case, seeing that over 80% said that not only had they never been in a sexual relationship, but that they’d never felt attraction to either sex. (One person had said that though they felt no attraction, they had been in a sexual relationship, but otherwise, there was a consistency in answers to the two questions.) Furthermore, 77% had said that they had never desired or enjoyed sex, ruling out the possibility that other factors, such as marijuana use, traumatic sexual experiences or the taking of libido-reducing medication, had influenced their sexual preference, or rather lack thereof.

The idea that a psychological disorder such as sexual aversion disorder (which entails that someone had desire and experiences anxiety as a result of being disgusted by sex) plays a factor was also disproved by the fact that 74% of asexuals said that they were not bothered by their lack of interest. The 26% that said that their lack of interest did bother them cited loneliness, feelings of isolation from the majority of the world and anxiety related to finding nonsexual companionship as the cause of their distress over it, rather than the actual lack of interest itself. Much of this 26% answered yes to the question of whether they had felt sexual desire at one point, saying in their comments that they had faked sexuality and tried to convince themselves that they did have a traditional orientation to fit in.

CATEGORIZATIONS WITHIN ASEXUALITY

Though the concept of having no sexuality is often assumed to be equitable with having less emotional capability and an insensitivity to aesthetic beauty, the survey suggests the opposite. Only 18% considered themselves to be “aromantic,” or being without the wish for a loving relationship, and 77% claim that they feel an aesthetic, nonsexual attraction to others, similar to looking at a beautiful painting, and recognize what looks good in other people. Yet another group, 10% of respondents, said that they have the odd combination of feeling sexually attracted to other people, but having no desire to have such contact with them for one reason or another.

A good 38% of people consider themselves to be mentally androgynous, or having a gender that shares qualities of males and females. This is not surprising, what with gender and sexuality being closely tied, and this result very closely echoes the figures in the gender poll about how many people considered themselves to be independent of either gender. However, many who responded that they did not consider themselves androgynous said that they strongly identify with the gender corresponding to their biological sex, perhaps answering the question of overlap raised by the gender and sex polls.

HOW PREVALENT ARE NONHUMAN SEXUAL INTERESTS?

Considering that 100% of respondents responded in the negative to a question of whether they have nonhuman interests (i.e., fetishes, bestiality, etc.), and that many expressed revulsion at the idea, it’s almost a sure thing that sexual interests involving things other than people isn’t an issue in the asexual community.

IS ASEXUALITY THE RESULT OF LOW SELF ESTEEM?

Another one of the assumptions made about asexuality is that those who claim to be part of that community suffer from an incredible self-esteem problem that leads to the conclusion that, since they can’t get a significant other because they’re too ugly, stupid, unhealthy, or whatever else, that they simply “won’t want it.” However insightful this theory may be, it hardly holds true. Asexuals consider themselves highly intelligent: no respondent put down that they believed they were less than a 5 on a 1-10 scale of intelligence, and slightly more than 80% believed that they were an 8 or above (20% believe they are a 10 on that scale). Most asexuals also consider themselves to be quite (physically) healthy, a 63% majority of them ranking themselves as a 7-9 on a 1-10 scale. Mental health and taste and style were very mixed, there being no clear majority of people who considered themselves to be either seriously lacking or superb in either category. Most people, when ranking themselves on a scale of 1-10 in regards to their looks and social skills (the things that are most often thought to be lacking in asexuals), tended to lean towards the middle, the largest portions labeling themselves as 4s through 6s. There was no one category where extremely low self-esteem was shown, though the first two show well enough that the asexual community doesn’t suffer from such an affliction. It might be useful to note that people who consistently chose low or high rankings were aware of having either a high or low self-esteem, and put that in their comments.

CONCLUSION

While showing an unusually high tendency toward certain traits and situations than do the majority of the world, the asexual community does not show itself to be dramatically different in all respects from it. Often, what was expected based on broadly held conceptions proved false, while things that would seem ordinary and nothing to be astounded by were made important when compared to what figures were outside the asexual community.

However, there are two things that could have been improved in the researching and execution of this project. The most glaring is the fact that some of the questions in the survey were subjective and hard to use for statistical purposes. This led to confusion on the parts of the respondents, and it made the survey unusable to an extent. The second thing that would’ve made this experiment more conclusive is a more effective polling system than the AVEN system allowed for: one that would’ve allowed for seeing how individuals voted on each poll to prevent confusion related to how data combined and conflicted between different polls; one that would have an equal number of respondents for all available polls; and one that was able to show the true cultural and geographic makeup of the community.

While the connections between religion, education, low self-esteem and a bad family life with asexuality were disproved quite thoroughly by the polls and surveys provided, there are still questions left to be answered. Is the astounding rate of occurrence of Asperger’s Syndrome in the community significant enough to prove a definite connection between it and asexuality? If indeed there is a correlation between asexuality and high IQ, is there any sort of cause-and-effect relationship? Can the use of marijuana truly be attributed to all-out asexuality, or simply to a reduced libido? To answer all these questions thoroughly would take much more research and resources than would be available for a high school science fair project. However, if human asexuality gains scientific recognition as an issue worthy of investigation, these questions will most likely be answered eventually.

REFERENCES

Bogaert, A. F. “Asexuality: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a National Probability Sample.” 2004. Retrieved from the Journal of Sex Research website on 3 February 2005:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._41/ai_n6274004

Ozbayrak, R. K., M.D. “What is the Epidemiology of Asperger’s Disorder?” 1996. Retrieved from the Asperger Disorder Homepage on 27 February 2005: http://www.aspergers.com/aspepi.htm

Seitz, B. and Seitz, T.J. “What Does ‘IQ’ Stand For, And What Does It Mean?” retrieved from the Mega Foundation website on 27 February 2005: www.geocities.com/rnseitz/Definition_of_IQ.html

Westphal, S. P. “Glad to be Asexual.” 2004. Retrieved from the New Scientist Magazine website on 8 January 2005: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6533

“Asexuality.” Retrieved from the Stupid Boy Forums website on 8 January 2005: http://www.stupidboy.com/forums/index.php?...=15627&st=0

“Asexuality.” Retrieved from the Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia website on 8 January 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality

“AVEN.” Retrieved from the Urban Dictionary website on 2 February 2005: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=AVEN&r=f

“Frequently Asked Questions.” 2001. Retrieved from the Asexual Visibility and Education Network website on 21 January 2005: http://www.asexuality.org/bigfaq.htm

“How Common is Intersex?” 1993. Retrieved from the Intersex society of North America website on 27 February 2005: http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency

“Study: 1 in 100 Adults Asexual.” 2004. Retrieved from the CNN website on 21 January 2005: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/14/asexual.study/

--

Well, that's it. Whew. That was more formatting work than I expected. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, feel free to move it if that's the case. Also, feel free to comment on the work itself. :D

[-V-]

So long, i can't read it. I'm sure its easier on the eyes when its in pages. I'll try it again some other time.

[Cerhiunnhn]

Wow, that was quite a read! But really, I'm impressed; you laid out the categories nicely, presented the information in a readable and understandable way, and you were fair in your research.

Commendable!

[Rukin Vinter]

Thank you so much. :)

[Silly Green Monkey]

One nitpick: In your introduction, you used the wording "attributed to asexuality" when talking about possible causes. Effects are attributed to causes, causes are not attributed to an effect. Your wording makes it sound like marijuana, Asperger's syndrome, certain forms of medication, and abnormal IQ are effects of asexuality.

I nitpick because that's one of the main reasons I get Cs on tests, I fail to be absolutely clear and the professor gets confused. All in all, a very well researched and organized paper.

[Rukin Vinter]

One nitpick: In your introduction, you used the wording "attributed to asexuality" when talking about possible causes. Effects are attributed to causes, causes are not attributed to an effect. Your wording makes it sound like marijuana, Asperger's syndrome, certain forms of medication, and abnormal IQ are effects of asexuality.

I nitpick because that's one of the main reasons I get Cs on tests, I fail to be absolutely clear and the professor gets confused. All in all, a very well researched and organized paper.

Thanks for the correction. I'll fix that up right away. And don't worry, I nitpick too. ^^;

[Rukin Vinter]

So long, i can't read it. I'm sure its easier on the eyes when its in pages. I'll try it again some other time.

Yeah, I understand. v-v Everything that's longer than a couple of paragraphs gets hard to read on a screen.

[KAGU143]

Impressive!

-Greybird

[Rukin Vinter]

Impressive!

-Greybird

Thanks much! :P

[Dargon]

I kinda skimmed through, as it is late, but from what I saw it is very well done. I shall read through the entire thing tomorrow,

[Rukin Vinter]

I kinda skimmed through, as it is late, but from what I saw it is very well done. I shall read through the entire thing tomorrow,

Thanks, I hope you like it!

[Dargon]

Just finished reading it, impressive. It covered pretty much all of the myths and such that I can think of that revolve around asexuality, and did a very good job proving/disproving them.

[Shivers]

Amazingly well thought out... I'm impressed.

[Rukin Vinter]

I know this is getting redundant, but thanks, everyone, for all the nice comments. :D

[Islander9]

Iam not sure whether this is the 'psycological' survey I objected to some months ago, If it is, I apologise - this is a good initial coverage, and contains valuable info. If it *isnt* - why, even better- it's a benchmark. Well done.

[Rukin Vinter]

Iam not sure whether this is the 'psycological' survey I objected to some months ago, If it is, I apologise - this is a good initial coverage, and contains valuable info. If it *isnt* - why, even better- it's a benchmark. Well done.

This is the same. I just used a different name on here than the one I'm using now so that no one could identify me and possibly answer differently because of familiarity. Sorry for any confusion this caused. Thanks for your comment. I'm adding onto this, by the way, for State, and I'll be posting the additions when they're done. :P

[ColiNi]

BTW, another way to improve the results would be to have a control group of sexuals.

e.g. the responses to the body image poll were bimodal for females but unimodal for males. Kinda interesting, but you can't tell if it is due to asexuality or if it is due to ordinary (fe)maleness.

BTW2, you can set the 'disable smileys in this post' option to make the "8)" in your survey results stop being smiley faces.

[hilbertastronaut]

Good work! :)

It's really hard to characterize asexuals in general because AVEN-goers are a very specific subset: regular computer and internet users (already a greatly limiting factor) who are interested enough in their state of life to frequent a web forum centered around it.

[Rukin Vinter]

To ColiNi:

You're very right. With some of the categories, I did provide statistics for the frequencies of certain traits in the general population (Asperger's Disorder, homosexuality and IQ, for instance), but not all, which would be helpful in the future.

To HilbertAstrounaut:

That did come into the discussion, especially given the fact that Internet access is in some ways limited to the developed world, and AVEN would most likely consist of self-aware, open-minded, and therefore intelligent individuals, skewing the results of the IQ and Geographic polls.

[VivreEstEsperer]

That's really awesome! You did a good job of clearly delineating the categories. And you were brave for doing such a personal subject, that's sooo cool that you won those awards!

Kate

[Petrael]

Great, Super, Awesome, Coooool...really the best paper about asexuality I've read so far... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thank you!

[Live R Perfect]

Great stuff! :)

One thing, though:

Bogaert, A. F. “Asexuality: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a National Probability Sample.” 2004. Retrieved from the Journal of Sex Research website on 3 February 2005:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._41/ai_n6274004

How come I've never seen that article before?! :shock:

[Rukin Vinter]

I dunno... o.O; It's been out there for a few months now. But then I went searching through the bowels of the Internet for information I could use, so it might've been kind of buried. I can't remember all that well where I found it now. ^^; My brain's a bit dead right now.

[Rukin Vinter]

Great, Super, Awesome, Coooool...really the best paper about asexuality I've read so far... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thank you!

Thank YOU. :P I'm updating it for State Science Fair, which has an extra five pages of research/analysis stuff. Dunno if I should update this/make another post, or leave this as is.

[Rukin Vinter]

That's really awesome! You did a good job of clearly delineating the categories. And you were brave for doing such a personal subject, that's sooo cool that you won those awards!

Kate

(Sorry, everyone, for making so many posts....)

Thanks for your comments. I made this as specific as possible, partially because I had to make everything seem super-accurate to compensate for the unusual subject matter. As far as most people know, though... *looks around paranoidly in my classroom >> << * Most people don't know at school that I'm A. They just assume it's Ribet Academy's Official Ranting Advocate off on another crusade. :lol: But still, I did have to convince my science teachers that I could do a good job on this and not make it seem like the work of either a) an immature, sex-obsessed, hormone-driven teenager, or B) someone with a political agenda that could interfere with the results.

[Qwerty]

Excellent!

I would have liked to see more on the population-skew problem of only sampling internet users. We already know that most internet users are young, male, American and either highly educated or have access to a computer at college. You should focus more on the areas which reverse this bias, for example the male/female ratio.

There should be some research available on the "internet user" demographic. Just picking a number out of the air to demonstrate, if the internet user is 30% female, 70% male and the Aven poll has 60% female, 40% male then it indicates that 78% of all asexuals are female, 22% male.

If you want to work it out with different numbers:

P1 = proportion of survey that is female

P2 = proportion of all internet users that are female

The proportion of all asexuals that are male is:

P2 / ( (P1 - P1P2)/(1-P1) + P2 )

and female is one minus this. (I just invented this formula from scratch - it may be incorrect.)

This ignores the intersex/other choice. You've already pointed out that this proportion is a lot higher than the general population. However you did make a tiny error there. It should have been THOUSANDS of times, not just hundreds.

[Petrael]

May I translate the document for the italian Aven forum? I'll write down the source...

:?: :?: :?:

[junie99]

Excellent work!

[Amcan]

Interesting.

Good work.

[spring253]

Great, Super, Awesome, Coooool...really the best paper about asexuality I've read so far...

I love it do you not?:I:I