I got a call from my sister this morning. She was listening
to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” on NPR when they asked a question about a study
out of Northern Illinois University. Turns out that study was ours! The
question referred to our recent paper on altered states of consciousness in
BDSM practitioners. We ran the study at the Arizona Power Exchange in 2013 with
financial support from CLAW Corp. and CARAS. Our goal was to look for evidence
of the altered states of consciousness that BDSM practitioners refer to as
“subspace” and “topspace”. Here’s the summary from the paper:
Researchers studying consensual
bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM) have
theorized that individuals pursue BDSM activities, in part, due to the pleasant
altered states of consciousness these activities produce. However, to date, no
research has tested whether BDSM activities actually facilitate altered states.
To this end, we randomly assigned 14 experienced BDSM practitioners to the
bottom role (the person who is bound, receiving stimulation, or following
orders) or the top role (the person providing stimulation, orders, or
structure) for a BDSM scene. Results suggest that topping was associated with
an altered state aligned with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1991) flow (measured with the
Flow State Scale), and bottoming was associated with an altered state aligned
with Dietrich’s (2003) transient hypofrontality (measured with a Stroop test)
as well as some facets of flow. Additional results suggest that BDSM activities
were associated with reductions in psychological stress and negative affect,
and increases in sexual arousal.
The segment on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” (which you can hear
at 1:47 into “Panel Round Two” on the November 12th episode) described
the research as showing that BDSM can make people more creative. This is a bit
of a leap from what we found. We found evidence that tops entered into the
state of “flow.” As an academic, I don’t usually quote Wikipedia, but I like
their definition of flow:
In positive psychology, flow, also
known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person
performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full
involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is
characterized by complete absorption in what one does.
So, tops were in a state of flow, and we suspect the flow
enhanced their effectiveness as tops. It’s an interesting question whether this
also made them more creative, but more research would be needed to figure this
out.
For more information:
- Here’s our paper on altered states of consciousness in BDSM practitioners.
- Here’s another paper on altered states of consciousness. This one examines altered states in participants of an extreme ritual called the Dance of Souls.
- Here’s a third paper that compares the physiological and psychological reactions of BDSM practitioners and extreme ritual participants.
#npr #waitwait #bdsm #scienceofbdsm
