"Classifying D/s Profiles Without Prior Assumptions: An Application of Cluster Analysis to Social Data"

Abstract

Dominant/submissive role-play (D/s) is associated with specialized roles including Mistress, Master, Slave, Switch, Sadist, and Masochist. The current study uses cluster analysis to provide empirical evidence that no binary opposition or single spectrum constitutes a workable typology of individuals based on their affinities for these roles. The optimality of a particular choice of clustering scheme, including the number of clusters, is established using a replication technique which is presented in detail. A large number (n = 236,353) of individualized results (profiles) generated by the BDSM Test, a popular anonymous web survey, were analyzed. We hypothesize a two-dimensional typology of D/s profiles as the inferential result of our cluster analyses.

Keywords: BDSM; Dominant/submissive role-play; cluster analysis; computational social science; exploratory data analysis; multivariate statistics; poststructuralism; sadomasochism; sexual diversity; switching.