Science of BDSM

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.

DR. BRAD SAGARIN is a professor of social and evolutionary psychology at Northern Illinois University where he studies social influence, resistance to persuasion, deception, jealousy, infidelity, human sexuality, and statistics. Brad has been published in a variety of scholarly journals, has given radio, television, and podcast interviews, has consulted for radio and television programs, and has delivered invited lectures to academic and non-academic organizations. His research has been cited in newspapers and magazines, including The Economist and New Scientist. He holds Doctorate and Master's degrees in Social Psychology from Arizona State University, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

JENNIFER DAVIS is an assistant professor of psychology at Bemidji State University. Her primary research interests include positive painful experiences, altered states of consciousness, extreme rituals, and sadism. Jen has presented in person and virtual workshops at BDSM/Kink/Leather events and at academic conferences. She has also given podcast interviews on racial discrimination in the BDSM community and on extreme rituals. Jen received her Baccalaureate degree, Master's degree, and a graduate-level certificate in quantitative statistics from Northern Illinois University and has been a member of the team since 2014.

TAYLOR MACKENZIE (he/him/they/them) is a graduate student in the Social/Industrial-Organizational program at Northern Illinois University. His primary research interests are stigma, intersectionality, and discrimination within the BDSM and swinger communities. He received a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Psychology with a Human Services concentration and Sociology and Gender, Women, and Sexualities studies minors from Appalachian State University in 2021. During his time at App State, he served as President and Certified Peer Educator for the Red Flag Campaign, which is a campaign focused on promoting equitable environments through education on rape culture and consent. While in this role, he created an event called “Meet the Kink” which provided a basic understanding of what BDSM is, some popular kinky activities, negotiations, and different consent models (SSC, RACK, PRICK).