Development and validation of a measure of attitudes toward sex doll ownership

Harper, CA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-0129, Lievesley, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4957-258X, Woodward, E ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6602-6701, Wilson, R, Stubbs, L, Boneham, C and Norton-Clarke, E, 2025. Development and validation of a measure of attitudes toward sex doll ownership. Psychology and Sexuality, 16 (4), pp. 1151-1190. ISSN 1941-9899

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Abstract

Sex dolls are beginning to become more mainstream, both in the public’s consciousness and in academic research. However, there is no current systematic examination of public attitudes toward sex dolls within the peer-reviewed literature, which represents a barrier to the efficient study of this topic. In this paper, we report the development and validation of such a measure. Using an international public sample, we found that Sex Doll Ownership Attitudes Scale (SDOAS) was underpinned by three factors: ‘Acceptability of Doll Ownership’, ‘Doll Owners as Immoral’, and ‘Doll Owners as Dysfunctional’ (Study 1; N = 377). Scores on each of these factors were predicted by participant sex, religiosity, permissive sexual attitudes, right-wing authoritarianism, and moral intuitions that favor personal liberty. This structure was confirmed in an independent UK sample, where links to policy support related to sex doll ownership were also established (Study 2; N = 329). We also demonstrated how the SDOAS can be used as an outcome measure when investigating views about dolls with different appearances and functions (Study 3; N = 292). We argue that the SDOAS possesses strong psychometric properties, and is suitable for use in different research designs in this emerging field of study.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Psychology and Sexuality
Creators:	Harper, C.A., Lievesley, R., Woodward, E., Wilson, R., Stubbs, L., Boneham, C. and Norton-Clarke, E.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Date:	2025
Volume:	16
Number:	4
ISSN:	1941-9899
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/19419899.2025.2506717 DOI 2434404 Other
Rights:	© 2025 the author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	06 May 2025 09:16
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2026 09:33
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53522

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