The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Sexual Fantasy Experience Scale.

Clinicians and researchers consider sexual fantasies to be a central aspect of human sexuality. Although these are subjective experiences, most studies have assessed only their frequency and content. A measure that assesses individuals' subjective experience of sexual fantasies is therefore needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new measure, the Sexual Fantasy Experience Scale (SFES). In Study 1, the SFES was administered to 391 participants (240 defined themselves as women, 149 as men, and 2 as other). In Study 2, the SFES was administered to 426 participants (255 defined themselves as women, 167 as men, and 4 as other), along with a battery of questionnaires including the New Sexual Satisfaction Scale Short Form and the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction, both of which measure sexual satisfaction, as well as the Sexual Fantasy Checklist, which evaluates the content of sexual fantasies and their frequency. Five reliable SFES subscales emerged from Study 1: playfulness, limitlessness, functionality, intrusiveness, and shame. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the scale's underlying factor structure, which was obtained in Study 1. The subscales of the SFES contributed to the explained variance of the assessments of sexual satisfaction, beyond the contribution of the fantasies' content and frequency, demonstrating the incremental validity of the subscales. The results of the present analyses suggest that the SFES has good psychometric properties, making it useful as an assessment tool for future research, clinical practice, and sex education.

Group Comparisons of the Sexual Interests and Behaviors of Assigned Males and Their Association with Genital Ablation Fantasies.

We describe here the sexual histories and characteristics of 338 individuals with interests in castration (orchiectomy) and, more broadly, genital ablation (i.e., orchiectomy, penectomy, and/or nullification), recruited from the Eunuch Archive. We compared four groups: those who only fantasize about castration (Fantasy, n = 66), those who wish to be castrated in the future (Aspiring, n = 166), and those who have been castrated (Eunuchs) both with (n = 42) or without (n = 64) androgen replacement therapy (ART). In our sample, 35.6-53.8% had sexual fantasies of castrating someone, 83.3-90.8% had fantasies of being castrated, 20.6-33.3% had fantasies of removing someone's penis, and 45.3-61.9% had fantasies of having a penectomy. The four groups had similar arousal by high-risk sex behaviors, anal sex play, attraction to people under 18, common sex behaviors, and fetishistic behaviors. Fantasy of being castrated by someone was associated with elevated high-risk sexual behaviors and attraction to individuals aged 18 to 49 after controlling for age, groups, and sexual attraction. In addition, after adjusting for age, groups, and sexual attraction, fantasy of castrating someone was associated with more attraction to individuals under the age of 18 and being aroused by interaction with a stranger, whereas fantasy of cutting off someone's penis was associated with less tendency for common sexual behaviors and digital sex communication. Fantasy of being penectomized was associated with high risk and fetishistic sexual behaviors. These results support screening for high-risk behaviors in individuals who endorse an interest in genital ablation, with treatments focused on harm reduction.

Explanations for Gender Differences in Preferences for Submissive Sexual Fantasies.

Women have a stronger preference for sexual submission than men do. In the current studies, we investigated gender differences in fantasies about sexual submission. Replicating previous research, in two studies we found that women expressed a stronger affinity for fantasies about sexual submission than men did. However, controlling for age and several sociocultural factors made the relationship between gender and preference for sexual submission non-significant-that is, we could statistically eliminate the gender difference. These analyses suggest the multiple factors that may influence sexual preferences and the multiple ways that gender differences in preference for submissive sexual fantasies can be eliminated by easily assessed demographic and contextual differences in the experiences of women and men.

Deepening Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies Research in the ACE Spectrum: Comparing the Experiences of Asexual, Demisexual, Gray-Asexual, and Questioning People.

Over the past 30 years, an increasing number of people have identified within the asexual (ACE) spectrum recognizing an absence/low/situational sexual attraction to individuals of any gender. The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of sexual desire, erotic fantasies, and related emotions within the ACE spectrum. A total of 1072 Italian volunteers were recruited to take part to the present study via social media. Data were collected from October 2021 to January 2022 using the Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies questionnaire and the Sexual Desire Inventory-2. Participants were divided into four groups: asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual, and questioning. Focusing on sexual desire, asexual people reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in all the dimensions except for "negative feelings to sexual desire," while demisexual participants showed the higher scores in all the domains except for "negative feelings to sexual desire." The questioning group reported the highest scores in the "negative feelings toward sexual desire" compared to the asexual and demisexual ones. The asexual group reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in fantasies frequency, fantasies importance, negative emotions, and sharing and experiencing. The demisexual group showed higher frequency of romantic fantasies than the asexual and gray-asexual ones. The results showed some specific patterns of desire and fantasies among the asexual, gray-asexual, demisexual, and questioning groups. These data may provide relevant material to clinicians working with asexual patients who need greater awareness about the diversity and heterogeneity of the sexual experience within the ACE spectrum.

Testing the Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the German Version of Gray et al.'s (2003) Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire.

Gray et al.'s (2003) Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (SFQ) is becoming an increasingly used self-report measure of sexual fantasy use. The current study analyzed the factorial structure and construct validity of the behavioral items of the SFQ using a nomological network of other sexuality-related measures in a large German-speaking sample (N = 846). Participants' (27.7% females) mean age was 30.8 years (SD = 11.0). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 65-item scale comprising five-factors, which were termed: normophilic sexual fantasies, sexualized aggression, sexualized submission, submissive courtship, and bodily functions. This German version of the SFQ was found to have high construct validity indicated by its association with other related constructs. Based on these results, we argue that the SFQ is a valid self-report measure that can be used in both research and clinical practice (foremost the factors sexualized aggression and sexualized submission). Suggestions for future research are discussed in light of the results and the study's limitations.

Sexual Norms Across Pornography Use, Sexual Fantasy, and In-Person Sexuality.

Sexual norms define perceptions of who is acceptable to partner with, how many partners are appropriate, and what sexual behaviors are acceptable to engage in. This shapes, in part, who has access to sexual pleasure and who is minoritized based on their sexuality. Though well theorized and researched for "in-person" sexuality, much less is known about sexual norms in other contexts/modalities, such as porn use and sexual fantasy, or how norms connect across these contexts. In the present study, we investigated sexual norms in porn, fantasy, and in-person sexuality, and similarities or differences between these. In an online study, gender/sex and sexually diverse participants (N = 706) manipulated digital circles representing porn use, sexual fantasy, and in-person sexuality. They used circle overlap to represent branchedness (i.e., distinction) and coincidence (i.e., similarity) in norm content, and circle size to indicate perceived norm strength. We found evidence that norm content was perceived to be more branched (i.e., distinct) than coincident (similar) and that norm strength for each context was high. This provides evidence that when people engage in each of these sexual contexts, they tend to do so through distinct normative lenses, rather than a singular lens that represents a universal set of norms applying across all sexual situations. This has implications for how we understand the associations between porn use, fantasy, and in-person sexuality, and highlights the importance of attending to sexuality in context.

Cognitive empathy boosts honesty in children and young adolescents.

Children and young adolescents often tend to behave dishonestly in order to serve their self-interests. This study focused on how empathic abilities affect children's tendency to deceive others. Deception is the act of causing others to form a false belief to get them to act in a way that serves the deceiver's interests. As such, it requires the ability to predict how others might use the provided information. In two experiments, 274 participants (aged 10-16 years) played a game in which they could send a deceptive message to another participant to boost their own payoff at the other player's expense. We measured participants' cognitive and emotional empathy using different measures. We found that a measure of cognitive empathy, namely the fantasy scale, was associated with less deception of another player when that other player was not identified and was presented only as "Player B." However, when Player B was identified by name, empathy did not predict deception. In such cases, the only factors affecting deception rates were the gain for the participant (higher possible gains lead to more deception) and loss to the other player (higher possible losses lead to less deception). Overall, the findings suggest that even by 11 years of age, children can understand the impact of their unethical behavior on another child and adjust their actions accordingly. However, when the other child is not identified, children need to possess high levels of cognitive empathy toward imagined individuals to resist the temptation to deceive the other child.

Preschoolers negatively evaluate conventional norm violations in pretend play.

A growing body of research demonstrates that children's pretend play is largely influenced by their understanding of reality. The current work took a novel approach to testing children's understanding of pretense by investigating whether children apply and uphold their knowledge of conventional norms in pretend play. In this study, 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 200) were introduced to a series of pretend play scenarios (e.g., pretending to eat breakfast) in which a puppet pretended to follow a norm (e.g., pretended to eat cereal for breakfast) or violate a norm (e.g., pretended to eat a hamburger for breakfast). These pretend play scenarios were presented as either fantastical or realistic in nature. Consistent with our hypotheses, children evaluated pretend norm violation more negatively than pretend norm adherence and reported liking norm violators less than norm followers. Contrary to our hypothesis, the manipulation of play context (fantastical vs. realistic) did not affect children's evaluations. That is, children were just as negative about pretend norm violations (relative to pretend norm adherence) in fantastical pretend play scenarios as they were in realistic pretend play scenarios. Furthermore, individual differences in children's fantasy orientation did not predict their evaluations. This study is the first to establish that children maintain their real-world understanding of conventional norms in pretend play, providing further evidence that children's pretense is largely realistic in nature.

Daydreaming and grandiose delusions: development of the Qualities of Daydreaming Scale.

BACKGROUND: Daydreaming may contribute to the maintenance of grandiose delusions. Repeated, pleasant and vivid daydreams about the content of grandiose delusions may keep the ideas in mind, elaborate the details, and increase the degree of conviction in the delusion. Pleasant daydreams more generally could contribute to elevated mood, which may influence the delusion content. AIMS: We sought to develop a brief questionnaire, suitable for research and clinical practice, to assess daydreaming and test potential associations with grandiosity. METHOD: 798 patients with psychosis (375 with grandiose delusions) and 4518 non-clinical adults (1788 with high grandiosity) were recruited. Participants completed a daydreaming item pool and measures of grandiosity, time spent thinking about the grandiose belief, and grandiose belief conviction. Factor analysis was used to derive the Qualities of Daydreaming Scale (QuOD) and associations were tested using pairwise correlations and structural equation modelling. RESULTS: The questionnaire had three factors: realism, pleasantness, and frequency of daydreams. The measure was invariant across clinical and non-clinical groups. Internal consistency was good (alpha-ordinals: realism=0.86, pleasantness=0.93, frequency=0.82) as was test-retest reliability (intra-class coefficient=0.75). Daydreaming scores were higher in patients with grandiose delusions than in patients without grandiose delusions or in the non-clinical group. Daydreaming was significantly associated with grandiosity, time spent thinking about the grandiose delusion, and grandiose delusion conviction, explaining 19.1, 7.7 and 5.2% of the variance in the clinical group data, respectively. Similar associations were found in the non-clinical group. CONCLUSIONS: The process of daydreaming may be one target in psychological interventions for grandiose delusions.

A Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Fantasies Among Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors and Non-Victims.

Research suggests childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has an impact on survivor's sexual fantasies; however, empirical research is inconclusive. As sexual fantasies play a crucial role in sexual well-being, more exploration of sexual fantasies in CSA survivors and non-victims is needed. An online survey-based content analysis was conducted on fantasies reported by CSA survivors (n = 48) and non-victims (n = 44). Results unveiled nine fantasy categories reported by both groups. An additional category, versatility, was reported solely by survivors. These findings highlight the diverse fantasy content experienced by survivors, prompting a reconsideration of theories suggesting a linear relationship between CSA and the development of sadomasochistic or violent fantasies in adulthood.

Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: With the Internet allowing consumers easy access to fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM), it is becoming increasingly important to understand the context of their use among specific populations. Of particular, social, clinical, and legal interest is FSM use by people who are attracted to children and whether this may have a risk-enhancing or protective impact on their likelihood of committing a contact or non-contact sexual offence. RECENT FINDINGS: There is a lack of data currently available in relation to the use of FSM by those with sexual attractions to children. Evidence from allied areas appears to show no meaningful associations between FSM use and sexual aggression. We propose a novel research program and some initial research questions that provide a theoretical framework for more evidence-based inquiry on FSM use by people who experience attractions to children.

The relative risks of different forms of sports betting in a U.S. sample: A brief report.

BACKGROUND: The 21st century has brought substantial changes to the manners in which people gamble and the types of things on which people gamble. These changes are particularly stark in the United States, where, over the past five years, sports betting has gone from being legal in only one location to being legal throughout the majority of the country, often via mobile applications and online betting websites. METHOD: In March of 2022, a sample of the U.S. population (n = 2806, Mage[SD] = 48.9[17.2]; 1365[48.6%] men; response rate = 87.6%) and an oversample of sports-wagering adults in the U.S. (n = 1557, Mage[SD] = 41.7[15.3]; 1043[67%] men; response rate = 78.7%) were recruited via YouGov. Participants completed measures of gambling activities, including various forms of sports betting, as well as measures of problem gambling activities. RESULTS: In general, people who gamble on sports, when compared to people who do not bet on sports, reported greater frequency of gambling engagement (averaging between monthly and weekly play),a wider variety of gambling activities (with the majority reporting past year engagement in four or more gambling activities), and higher rates of problem gambling. Multinomial logistics regression revealed no distinct associations between any specific form of sports gambling and higher risk, instead demonstrating that breadth and depth of gambling engagement were the best predictors of high-risk gambling behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: In general, sports gambling is broadly associated with greater engagement in both breadth of gambling activities and frequency of gambling play. Additionally, people who gamble on sports seem to be at higher risk of problem gambling than people who do not bet on sports. However, in analyses controlling for breadth and depth of gambling activities, these links are attenuated, suggesting that the risks associated with sports gambling behaviors are related to the greater degree of gambling engagement.

A Qualitative Exploration of Sleep-Related Sexual Interests: Somnophilia and Dormaphilia.

Somnophilia is an under-researched paraphilia. Consequently, there are discrepancies in its definition and conceptual understanding. Also, literature regarding the sexual interest in being asleep during sexual activity (dormaphilia) is even more limited. As such, there is a need to understand these paraphilias more deeply. This study recruited 232 participants online to discuss the content, origin, sexual appeal, emotional appraisal, and behavioural enactment of their somnophilic and dormaphilic interests and fantasies. A Thematic Analysis led to the identification of four main themes: (1) Relevance of Sleep State; (2) Roles within Sleep Sex; (3) Enactment of Sleep Paraphilia and (4) Lack of Consent and Awareness. These four themes spanned across both those reporting somnophilic and dormaphilic fantasies. The Discussion explores the multi-faceted nature of the interests, and implications for the understanding of somnophilia and dormaphilia. This study provides the first qualitative exploration of sleep-related paraphilias, opening avenues for future research and practice.

Psychopathic Personality as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Atypical Sexuality and Sexual Coercion Proclivity in the General Population.

Being sexually coerced can have long-lasting psychological impacts on victims; with perpetration strongly predicted by elevated psychopathic traits. Owing to recent legislative developments in the United Kingdom that criminalize coercive control under the Domestic Abuse Act (2021), this study offers a timely investigation into the mechanisms of sexual coercion in domestic abuse across sexual abuse and coercive control. We used moderation analysis (n = 405) to investigate whether sexual coercion proclivity was predicted by facets of atypical sexuality (non-clinical elevated levels of sex drive, sexual sadism, and sexual masochism), and whether this relationship was moderated by psychopathic personality traits specifically the factor one components, which encompasses interpersonal and affective characteristics. Psychopathic personality traits significantly moderated the positive association between sex drive and sexual coercion proclivity, and between sexual sadism and sexual coercion proclivity in males (but not females), but psychopathic personality traits had no such moderating effect in the sexual masochism model. Results are discussed in terms of identifying risk factors of sexual coercion within a general population sample and international application. Open data and a preprint of this paper are available at [https://osf.io/xkcah/?view_only=134ff9c93ad24ba286515b348ce79c0c].

THINKING THE DREAM: DREAM AND DREAM THINKING IN SIGMUND FREUD, HANNA SEGAL, AND WILFRED BION.

In the dream and its interpretation, psychoanalysis, in its founding period around 1900, identified the "royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious in the psychic life." But already in the development of Freud's work itself, the dream lost its central position: As early as in the 1920s, psychoanalysis ceased to be a theory and practice defined by dream interpretation-a caesura in a process which completed itself in 1950. Two further developments proved, up to the present day, particularly momentous for the conception of the dream: Melanie Klein's development of the concept of "unconscious phantasy" and the extension of psychoanalytic treatment to psychosis, originally declared inaccessible to psychoanalytic therapy by Freud. This article draws an itinerary of this path and the subsequent fundamental changes in the psychoanalytic reflection on the dream affecting the whole of psychoanalysis until today, by casting spotlights on essential stations: conceptions of the dream developed by Hanna Segal and Wilfred Bion, the latter's theory perpetuating Freud's dream theory as well as it conceptualizes dreams, dreaming, and thinking in a fundamentally new way.

Castration for Pleasure: Exploring Extreme Castration Ideations in Fiction.

The Eunuch Archive (EA) is an online community which includes individuals who read and write sexual fantasies with themes related to castration and eunuchs. Here we analyzed the 100 stories rated highest by EA readers among the >8800 currently posted. Our goal was to gain insights into commonalities within, and specifics of, castration sexual fantasies. Simply stated, we want to know what the authors (and readers) fantasize about and why. The most popular EA stories link sexual gratification and romantic partnership with genital abuse. They are characterized by the absence of consent for genital ablations and multiple SM-related paraphilias. Many stories feature attraction to, and ablation of, the genitals of pubescent or adolescent males. Some EA members have acted on their interests and been voluntarily castrated. Others wish to be. The most popular stories in the EA collection typically link the sacrifice via SM abuse to securing a permanent sexual partnership. The idea of sacrificing one's genitals to build dyadic adhesion has been noted before in individuals with extreme castration ideations. Here we identify the common features of sexualized fantasies that are popular among individuals with exceptional interest in castration.

Sexual Orientation Across Porn Use, Sexual Fantasy, and In-Person Sexuality: Visualizing Branchedness and Coincidence via Sexual Configurations Theory.

Sexual orientation describes sexual interests, approaches, arousals, and attractions. People experience these interests and attractions in a number of contexts, including in-person sexuality, fantasy, and porn use, among others. The extent to which sexual orientation is divergent (branched) and/or overlapping (coincident) across these, however, is unclear. In the present study, a gender/sex and sexually diverse sample (N = 30; 15 gender/sex/ual minorities and 15 majorities) manipulated digital circles representing porn use, in-person sexuality, and fantasy on a tablet during in-person interviews. Participants used circle overlap to represent the degree of shared sexual interests across contexts and circle size to indicate the strength and/or number of sexual interests within contexts. Across multiple dimensions of sexual orientation (gender/sex, partner number, and action/behavior), we found evidence that sexual interests were both branched and coincident. These findings contribute to new understandings about the multifaceted nature of sexual orientations across contexts and provide a novel way to measure, conceptualize, and understand sexual orientation in context.

Exploring Variations in Individuals' Relationships to Sexual Fantasies: A Latent Class Analysis.

Sexual fantasies represent a vast and highly personal dimension of human sexuality that remains understudied empirically. This article used a person-oriented approach to examine the reactions of arousal and discomfort that individuals experienced in response to four proposed fantasy scenarios depicting themes of romance, power dynamics (i.e., submission and domination), pain (i.e., sadism and masochism), and sexual violence. Using an online sample of 566 adult participants (250 men and 291 women) from the general population of Canada and the U.S., four classes were identified based on reactions of arousal and discomfort toward the proposed scenarios: Indifferent (relatively low arousal and discomfort to all scenarios, 37%), Romantic (high arousal solely for the romance scenario, high discomfort toward other scenarios, 22%), Enthusiastic (high arousal and low discomfort in response to all scenarios, 26%), and Dissonant (relatively high arousal and discomfort toward all scenarios, 15%). These classes were then compared to examine differences in terms of the following psychosexual characteristics: gender, experiences of childhood sexual abuse, sexual compulsion, and romantic attachment. Findings illustrated distinct patterns of reactions toward fantasies and confirmed the presence of links between reactions toward sexual fantasies, psychosexual characteristics, and traumatic life experiences. This suggests that the relationship between individuals and their sexual fantasies may be indicative of their overall relationship with sexuality.

How, when, and what do young children learn from fictional stories?

Fictional stories for children are often designed to teach new information such as vocabulary words and problem-solving solutions. Past work has shown that children can learn real-world information from these fictional sources, but we do not yet understand the full scope of how different variables affect this learning process. The articles in this special issue aimed to address this question, paying particular attention to the ways in which the fantastical elements that are so common in children's media might affect their learning. In this editorial introduction, we draw out common themes from these articles and identify open questions in this field. Specifically, although there is clearly more work to be done, these articles demonstrate that fantasy can sometimes benefit children's learning, that learning is affected by children's prior knowledge and by how the educational information is integrated into the story, and that it is important to disentangle the type of target educational information (e.g., new facts vs. executive function strategies) from the type of fictional context used to teach it.

Relations between fantasy and transfer of learning from storybooks.

Prior research presents a mixed picture regarding the circumstances under which children transfer learning of problem solutions from fantastical stories to real-world problems. Two experiments examined 3- to 5-year-old children's transfer of learning from fantastical storybooks that systematically varied in the fantastical abilities of storybook characters. In both experiments, participants heard stories about a character solving physical problems, and then participants attempted to solve analogous real-world problems. In Experiment 1, children heard stories that varied the fantastical abilities and practices of the protagonist; characters either did or did not have the ability to violate physical laws and did or did not use magic to help in solving a problem. Children were more likely to transfer problem solutions from the stories in which characters were presented as having the ability to violate real-world physical laws. In Experiment 2, the fantastical abilities of the characters varied by whether the characters were described as real, as pretend but living in a world where no physical laws could be violated, as pretend and living in a world where some physical laws could be violated, or as pretend and living in a world where many physical laws could be violated. Other than varying the characters' abilities, all characters used realistic solutions to solve the problem. Again, transfer was higher for children who heard about characters with the ability to violate real-world laws. The findings suggest that fantastical stories in which characters have the ability to do impossible things but use realistic solutions to problems can be effective in teaching children how to solve physical problems.