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Results have been released from an Anthropomorphic Research Project survey of 455 furs taken at Furry Fiesta 2013.

78% of females and 96% of males report viewing furry porn. Both groups underestimated both figures by 8-12%.

Increasing furriness indicated a tendency to use fantasy for various purposes, including escapism, but didn't indicate blurring of reality, or an inability to have fun, self-motivate, fulfil needs, socialize, or cope with problems without fantasy.

Female furs had less sexual roleplay, owned less pornography, viewed it less frequently, and felt it had less influence on their joining the fandom. They also saw pornography as more openly discussed within the fandom.

Furries overestimated the positivity of both male and female furs towards furry porn: males tended to be positive or mixed, while over 20% of females had a negative view. 51% of furs preferred porn over general furry artwork; 17% had the opposite view. ~55% saw non-furry pornography in a negative light; some males only view furry porn.

Non-brony furs rated bronies less positively (50) than furries (79) or non-furs (61).

Furries are very liberal on social matters, but more moderate on economic topics.

Therians anthropomorphise animals more than non-therian furs; those strongly identifying as furries gave human characteristics to both regular and stuffed animals.

Around half of those participating chose to join the group's three-year longitudinal study.

On [adjective][species]: JM revisits Dr. Gerbasi's original study – Nuka responds

Demographics, accommodation, relationships, and work/education

Gender accorded roughly with prior findings, at 77.9% male vs. 17.5% female, though some of the team's online surveys report slightly more males. Almost half of those surveyed lived with their parents – though this falls to around 25% for those 24 or above, who are more likely to live alone, or with a spouse or partner.

56% of the sample was single; 25.5% were dating, but only 5-6% were engaged, with a similar number married. Open, polyamorous, master/pet and "other" forms of relationships were each reported by ~6–7% of furs.

Nearly half attended full-time (35%) or part-time (11%) education; over half also had a full-time (32%) or part-time (24%) job, but nearly 30% reported unemployment; 23% were looking for work, and 9% chose "other" (e.g. homemakers). Intriguingly, over 4% indicated being disabled, while only 1% were retired. More furries were satisfied than dissatisfied with their current work status (~3.8–3.9 on a 1–6 scale). 25% of those with post-secondary education had four years of it. Future work may investigate whether those reporting less (or more) had faced trouble completing their courses, or were merely starting on it.

96% of the sample identified as furry, 17% as therian, 5% as otherkin, 5% as lycanthrope, 21% as brony, and 65% as human.

Therians were less likely to identify as human than non-therians (43.9% vs. 69.5%; t(77.2) = 3.56, p = .001).

Pornography in furry fandom: beliefs and reality

Estimate: What % of male furries view furry porn? Male guess: 83.7%

Female guess: 84.0% Estimate: What % of female furries view furry porn? Male guess: 71.3%

Female guess: 69.8% "Do you view furry pornography?" Males: 96.3% yes

Females: 78.3% yes "I view furry pornography exclusively/near-exclusively" Males: 17.1% yes

Females: 2.2% yes "My pornography use is not exclusively furry" Males: 41.0% yes

Females: 77.7% yes

Significant differences exist between male and female furs on the topic of furry pornography. Both groups underestimated the ratio of furries of both groups who viewed pornography, but overestimated their positivity towards pornography, as compared with their own attitudes. Researcher Courtney "Nuka" Plante called this "a near-perfect, textbook example of pluralistic ignorance in action: people assume that they're the only one who feels this way".

This effect was notable for female furries, who also perceived pornography to be more openly discussed within the fandom than males did (5.70 vs. 5.13; t(259) = 2.41, p = .017). The team suggested this resulted in a stereotype threat: females see furry fandom as overly-sexualized, and believe female furs are more positive about pornography than they actually are, leading to the feeling that they do not belong within the fandom — hence they don't join, or depart.





Both male and female furs were believed to be more positive about furry pornography than they actually were.

More than a third of furries have relatively negative attitudes […] and only about a quarter of furries feel quite positively toward it.

Male furs were more likely to view furry porn than female furs (t(49.0) = -2.87, p = .006). Males and females agreed on non-furry pornography

There was no significant difference between the groups when asked if they preferred pornographic or non-pornographic furry artwork. Over 50% preferred pornographic furry art (vs. ~17% for non-pornographic), but both preferences were typically slight or middling (mean ~4.6).

What % of furry art you view is pornographic? Males: 50.9%

Females: 30.7% What % of furry art you own is pornographic? Males: 20.9%

Females: 8.7% Times pornography viewed in the last month Males: 43.5

Females: 10.5 What % of online roleplay is in a sexual context? Males: 34.0%

Females: 21.4%

Male furs were more positive about using furry pornography than females (4.82 vs. 3.19 on a 1–7 point scale, t(242) = 4.97, p < .001); almost a fifth reported using it exclusively. While males were "MUCH more likely to report that their interest in the fandom was influenced by furry pornography" (3.36 vs. 1.80, t(90.2) = 6.73, p < .001), half the furs surveyed said it "had little to no influence".

Fantasy engagement

Researchers knew that fantasy is significantly related to the level of furry identification.

But what do furries use it for?

The more 'furry' a person was, the more they tended to used fantasy: to express some part of themselves (B = .32, p < .001)

as a means of motivating themselves (B = .23, p < .001)

for recreational purposes (B = .22, p < .001)

to fulfill some currently unfulfilled need in their life (B = .19, p = .001)

as means of coping with setbacks and failures (B = .17, p = .006)

as a means of escapism from the real world (B = .17, p = .005) Being [more] furry did NOT significantly predict the use of fantasy for social reasons [IM, chat, etc.] (B = .10, p = .098)

More dedicated furries were more likely to use fantasy as their only means of self-expression (B = .14, p = .018) and escapism (B = .19, p = .002). However, they were not more likely to use fantasy as the only way to "have fun, fulfill needs, engage in social interaction, motivate oneself, or cope with problems", nor did it predict a "blurring of fantasy or reality" (B = .07, p = .46) or "problematic fantasy use" (B = -.04, p = .64).

Bronies in the fandom

ARP researchers had covered bronies in the furry fandom, but they wanted to learn more about how the groups felt about each other. While both brony and non-brony furs rated furries higher than non-furs (the difference in their ratings of non-furs was insignificant), non-brony furries rated bronies far less positively than they rated non-furs (50 vs. 61 on a 100-point scale; t(238) = -5.60, p < .001).

Compared to non-brony furs, the furry bronies:

had a far higher opinion of bronies (72 vs. 50; t(63) = 3.97, p < .001)

thought other bronies would be more positive about non-furs

(58.6 vs. 52.0; t(304) = -2.62, p =.009), and

(58.6 vs. 52.0; t(304) = -2.62, p =.009), and thought non-furs would rate bronies more positively (33.1 vs. 24.9; t(301) = -3.65, p < .001)

The team said these findings represented "positive biases in the way we view the groups to which we belong", and that:

[The negative rating of bronies vs. non-furs] provides evidence to support the claim that non-brony furries may feel particular malice for bronies because they are, at some level, somewhat comparable to the furry fandom.

This survey did not cover non-furry bronies, and may not be representative of bronies in general. For a view from the brony side, see this survey.

Politics, pets, and bonus anthropomorphism findings

On a conservative/liberal scale, those surveyed "define themselves as quite socially liberal" (mean 6.03 on a 1 to 7 scale), but "reported a much more moderate position" economically (mean 4.93; F(1,273) = 96.12, p < .001). Researchers suggested that respondents' choice on a political scale (mean 5.56) was a composite of their social ("same-sex marriage, immigration, religious issues, abortion") and economic ("privatized health care, military spending, and welfare/social security") positions.

While the team had previously asked whether furries had owned a pet (most had), this time they asked how many were currently owned:

Nearly one-third of furries reported that they did not currently own a pet, while nearly half of furries said that they owned one or two pets.

The team hypothesized that those who wished to own a pet (and had in the past) might not be able to due to their current living arrangements.

In email, Nuka revealed findings relating to the anthropomorphism of animals (as compared to objects such as robots, cars and computers):

Those identifying more strongly as furries tend to anthropomorphise animals more (B = .29, p < .001) …but not as much as those identifying as therians (t(79.1) = -3.24, p = .002)

Those identifying as furries do not anthropmorphise all objects more than usual (B = .09, p = .33), …but do tend to anthropmorphise stuffed animals (B = .12, p = .048)



Lists of things to do with bricks and common features of chairs and tables were also collected, in a bid to measure furry creativity.

Figures provided by the Anthropomorphic Research Project; see their survey results page and Flayrah's past survey coverage for more details.