Where’s the tech in sex research? A brief critique and call for research

Shaughnessy, Krystelle; Braham, Justine

doi:10.3138/cjhs.2021-0026

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Yet, in line with the proposition made by Shaughnessy & Braham (2021) regarding the use of online technologies, we argue that erobotic technologies could play a greater role in sexuality studies.…”

Section: Dubé Et Al / Erobots As Research Toolssupporting

confidence: 72%

Erobots as research tools: Overcoming the ethical and methodological challenges of sexology

Dubé

Santaguida

Anctil

2022

FRL

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Sexology faces several ethical and methodological challenges. One of them is that sex researchers must rely on proxy methods to safely study fundamental aspects of human sexuality – in laboratories and natural environments. However, laboratory studies often lack ecological validity, whereas studies conducted in natural environments make it difficult for researchers to control experimental conditions or use sophisticated equipment. Together, this puts into question some of the empirical foundations of contemporary sexology. To address this problem, the present article proposes that sex researchers could leverage the potential of emerging technology, like erobots – or artificial erotic agents, such virtual partners, erotic chatbots, and sex robots – to help overcome some of the current ethical and methodological challenges of sexology. To make this case, this article describes these challenges; highlights how erobotic technologies could be employed as research tools to conduct more ecologically valid sexological studies safely and ethically in and outside laboratory settings; and discusses the relative strengths and weaknesses of embodied, virtual, and augmented erobots as experimental apparatus in sex research. Ultimately, this article concludes that the development of erobots that are useful for sexology may require further collaboration between academia and the private sector. It also concludes that the development of such useful erobots may allow us to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our eroticism.

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Section: Dubé Et Al / Erobots As Research Toolssupporting

confidence: 72%

Erobots as research tools: Overcoming the ethical and methodological challenges of sexology

Dubé

Santaguida

Anctil

2022

FRL

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“…However, sexting as a research topic is limited in (a) its conceptual and operational definitions, (b) historical connections to moral panic, and (c) an inability to reflect the breadth of ever-changing technologies used for sexual interactions (see [ 10 ]). In contrast, TMSI is a behavioural domain that integrates the core behaviours in sexting with similar behaviours across a wide variety of common and emerging technologies [ 10 , 99 ]. As technologies evolve, the specific formats (e.g., text, image, audio) tied historically to one type of technology will change, as will the specific technologies through which behaviours can occur.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology-Mediated Sexual Interactions, Social Anxiety, and Sexual Wellbeing: A Scoping Review

Shaughnessy

Fehr

Ashley

et al. 2022

EJIHPE

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Technology-mediated sexual interactions (TMSI) are interpersonal exchanges via technology of self-created sexual material, including photos, videos, and auditory or text messages. There is little research on the factors that predict both TMSI experiences and their sexual wellbeing outcomes. Social anxiety is anxiety experienced in response to social or performance situations. From a cognitive–behavioural perspective, people higher in social anxiety may avoid TMSI, preventing positive or negative consequences. They also may use TMSI to avoid the anxiety caused by in-person sexual interactions, benefiting from access to sexual interactions while perpetuating anxiety about them. The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the role of social anxiety in TMSI and its sexual wellbeing outcomes. We executed a comprehensive search strategy across eight academic databases and searched reference lists of included articles. We included 19 articles written in English or French that had a human sample and were published between 1991 and 2021 and evaluated connections between social anxiety constructs (e.g., shyness, anxiety) and TMSI-related experiences (e.g., sexting, internet sex addiction). The pattern of results suggested that social anxiety constructs may predict some but not all forms of TMSI. Future research from a cognitive–behavioural perspective will expand knowledge on social anxiety, TMSI, and its sexual wellbeing outcomes.

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Four Problems in Sexting Research and Their Solutions

Courtice

Shaughnessy

2021

Sexes

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Despite over 10 years of research, we still know very little about people’s sexting behaviours and experiences. Our limited and, at times, conflicting knowledge about sexting is due to re-searchers’ use of inconsistent conceptual definitions of sexting, dubious measurement practices, and atheoretical research designs. In this article, we provide an overview of the history of sex-ting research and describe how researchers have contributed to the ‘moral panic’ narrative that continues to surround popular media discourse about sexting. We identify four key problems that still plague sexting research today: (1) imprudent focus on the medium, (2) inconsistent conceptual definitions, (3) poor measurement practices, and (4) a lack of theoretical frameworks. We describe and expand on solutions to address each of these problems. In particular, we focus on the need to shift empirical attention away from sexting and towards the behavioural domain of technology-mediated sexual interaction. We believe that the implementation of these solu-tions will lead to valid and sustainable knowledge development on technology-mediated sexual interactions, including sexting.

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Where’s the tech in sex research? A brief critique and call for research

Cited by 3 publications

References 50 publications

Erobots as research tools: Overcoming the ethical and methodological challenges of sexology

Erobots as research tools: Overcoming the ethical and methodological challenges of sexology

Technology-Mediated Sexual Interactions, Social Anxiety, and Sexual Wellbeing: A Scoping Review

Four Problems in Sexting Research and Their Solutions

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