Academic article on the effects of doll ownership

[Sian_E]

Thank you for your previous engagement with our research into doll ownership. This work is now almost complete and the paper reporting the data is currently being written-up. For those interested in an overview of the work, it has been presented in a research seminar which can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBkVzXz_1zk

While collecting the data for this research, my colleague and I also wrote a review of existing arguments about doll ownership, and suggested that there is no evidence for any of the moralistic claims about negative effects of sex/love dolls. You can access this paper at the following link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 20-01177-w

I realise that there was a little bit of caution abut the aims of some of this work, so I hope that these links will alleviate some of those initial fears. In short, the review article suggests that there is no evidence for any of the claims about dolls leading to sexual risk or other social harms. The data that we collected to directly challenge these myths provided no evidence that doll owners were more 'risky' than a sample of people who do not own dolls. We hope to be able to use this work as a springboard for promoting a more positive and acceptance-based message about doll ownership.

Best wishes,

Craig Harper
(Nottingham Trent University)

[curiousswede]

Superb!

As your review with preliminary data from this forum and other places suggest, there is still much more research needed to establish possible effects of doll ownership. Preliminary data seems to support that effects of doll ownership could be more positive rather than negative.

One way to imply the support is this; if we assume the worst coming from doll ownership then actual sexual crimes should find dolls in more cases at the offenders' homes than other cases. My gut feeling as of now tells me that is not the case though, thankfully.

Also, the social constructionism paradigm (used by those sociology scholars) is lacking as it seems to run on the premise that EVERYTHING is determined by people's interactions between one another. The truth is closer to culture and biology playing off one another and thus "co-evolving".

For example, sorrowing those passed away seems to be biologically universal while culture around the world shapes HOW we go through the ritualized sorrowing process.

Even better example is eating. We all eat. But what we eat and why we eat what we eat is very cultural-based as culture is "co-evolved" with the ecology (the place where we live and thus what we have enough access to).

So, where people could easily use agriculture to get fed from cows and goats then we also evolved some lactose-tolerance with time due to the culture of eating lots of milk products because that was the easiest at the place and time to get consistently. That is the "co-evolving" part.

Btw, have you read Robert Sapolsky's Behave? That book is amazing in telling one that, "Stuff's complicated, man!"

[Sian_E]

You make a really good point. A similar way of looking at this would be about the base sample, in that if people look for signs of doll ownership among offending samples, then they will find an association. That is exactly why we have been trying to sample from forums such as this, where we are able to look at the doll owning community more generally and hopefully draw some more realistic and accurate conclusions.

I haven't read Sapolsky's book, but I have heard it's interesting. Thanks for the tip!

[Anung Un Rama]

Well presented even for preliminary and non peer reviewed studies.

The interim conclusion seem solid, sadly relevant authorities and certain agenda motivated demographics pushing their own narrative will totally disregard the conclusions (as these would disintegrate their own narratives), and these groups will continue to propaganda bomb social and mainstream media to influence ignorant and misinformed public opinion and sentiment.

How interesting that the findings and conclusions shown that the current media and public opinion mythos, in all reality, are shown to be absolute bullshit lacking any credibility from unreliable sources...who would have thought that was the case in this current era of Fake news.

Good work and looking forward to seeing the final papers and seminars.

Anung

[Rowsdower]

Dolls start at $3000 for a basic model? I think most of the people on this forum own dolls in the under $2000 range; many under $1000. The very high-end manufacturers based in the west might start their basic models around $3000, but that represents a very small part of over-all doll sales.

[Sum_guy]

I'm still skeptical.... JK (kinda)
Well I doubt it will change anyone's opinion but there it is for the world to see if any of the naysayers will even consider it.

[Rock13]

I fully participated in this study. I appreciate your objective approach to matters of doll ownership and that you took the time to share the results with us. Usually, we're asked to spill our guts about everything from our life experience to our relationships with our dolls and then hear nothing but crickets once the researchers have had their way with us.

[Sian_E]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and interest in the work. We will continue to publish work along these lines and fight against any arguments that are not consistent with the emerging evidence base.

The academic paper that comes from the previous survey is due to be submitted for journal review in the next couple of weeks, but I will link to it here so you have access. We're always happy to keep people in the loop about how data are being used! We also ran some interviews with people, but the nature of that data means that it takes a while longer to process, analyse, and write up for publication. More on that later in the year, hopefully!

Thanks again for your support with this.

[brigittes hubbie]

I am not surprised by the findings but it is great that it is scientifically backed what I was convinced of after meeting a lot other doll owners in the past years. Hopefully society and politicians take note and base their decisions on fact instead of biased opinions now.

Chris