The Science of BDSM

Home

Welcome to The Science of BDSM, the web site for the Science of BDSM Research Team.

Here you can find:

copies of our publications
a list of our presentations
links to media reports about our research
a bibliography of books and papers on BDSM and related topics
biographies of the members of our team

We also:

blog at scienceofbdsm.blogspot.com
tweet @scienceofbdsm
FetLife Science_of_BDSM
post on Facebook
share news via email (to join our mailing list, send a request to bsagarin@niu.edu)

MISSION

The Science of BDSM Research Team is led by professor of social psychology, Dr. Brad Sagarin, and composed of academics and community members. Members of the team include graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of fields, professors of psychology, clinical psychologists, and kinky people who are interested in supporting research. The team aspires to produce and disseminate quality research on BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism), and kink related topics.

The team seeks to understand the nature, dynamics, motivations, and effects of BDSM activities and relationships. To do so, it is committed to designing and conducting ethical studies, thoughtfully analyzing and interpreting data, and disseminating the results in as objective a manner as possible.

The team assumes that many people do BDSM for psychologically healthy reasons, and believes that de-pathologizing BDSM will help the scientific community and the BDSM community. The team anticipates that its research will yield a mix of findings, some congenial to a view of BDSM as healthy and some not, and it is dedicated to being open and transparent about all of its findings.

LATEST NEWS

11/19/2019: Jennifer Erickson and Brad Sagarin of the Science of BDSM Research Team, and Ms DDom and Cream Dream of Black FemDoms - Atlanta were interviewed on episode #301 of the KinkyCast.
10/22/2019: Thank you to MTTA for their generous donation. We appreciate all the support we have received over the years from Master Taino, MTTA, and the leadership and attendees of the Master/slave Conference. You can read more about how this donation helped forward our research on our FetLife or Facebook page.
07/28/2019: Our research was cited in an article by Pallavi Prasad, "BDSM Culture Can Make Women More Assertive In Work, Relationships" on The Swaddle.

HISTORY
Before the team developed into what it is today, it first began as a series of meetings set up by Brad Sagarin and Evelyn Comber to support research assistants (including Sarah A. Hanson) in their work transcribing interviews from Evelyn’s master’s thesis. The interviews were with BDSM practitioners, and Evelyn and Brad wanted to meet periodically with the transcribers in a group to discuss what they were hearing. As the discussion of these meetings expanded beyond these interviews, other people, including Bert Cutler, started joining the team.

Bert, who previously collaborated on BDSM research with Brad, encouraged the team to move beyond discussion to presenting at BDSM/Leather conferences and conducting research. With Bert’s encouragement, the team did just that. Bert arranged the team’s first presentation at the 2011 Southwest Leather Conference (SWLC) where they presented, “The Science of SM.”

The team has since presented at other BDSM/Leather organizations and conferences including: Galleria Domain 2 in Chicago, Cleveland Leather Alliance Weekend (CLAW), the Society of Janus, the Leather Levi Weekend (LLW), Frolicon, the Master/slave Conference, Power Exchange Summit, Great Lakes Leather Alliance, and Winter Wickedness. They have also collected data for studies hosted by the Arizona Power Exchange, Edgewalkers, SWLC, LLW, Thunder in the Mountains, and Eldritch Brothers Tattoo & Piercing.

2020 PRESENTATIONS & EVENTS

FEBRUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 29
Jen will present her work on sadism at the 2020 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Convention in New Orleans, LA.

APRIL 3 - APRIL 5
The BDSM Research Team will be attending Kinky Kollege Spring Break. Details coming.

NEED TO SEND IN A PAPER SURVEY?

MAIL TO:
Brad Sagarin
Department of Psychology
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
OR
EMAIL TO:
bsagarin@niu.edu