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Well, I only got the idea from your survey a while back.

I really do doubt I would have tried to conduct one without seeing yours first.

SO Y'ALL BE SURE TO THANK BIJUTDO.

i just got one tiny qvetion…

the 'did your sex drive increase after becoming brony' and it's kin question… are really needed?

first the question is incredibly wierd what conclusions are you gonna make based off the results?
and second. why would liking a cartoon somehow change your sex drive… =\ makes no sense…

The survey doesn't need to explain "Why is it happening?". It's only going to answer the question: "Is it actually happening?"

Given how there are so many rumors and claims going around that pin aura's of sexual influence on the Brony community then it would be nice to know if any of them are true in any way

If the survey shows that peoples sex drives are being altered from Bronyism , then you would turn to a different kind of study to find out why it's happening.

If they survey shows that it's not a thing, then there's no reason to ask any further.

fair enough… but, why would you be studying something ludicrious to begin with?

Why not?

Remember the motto of science: Question everything.

I can say personally that this happened with me. When I first started watching the show, my sex drive dropped off to nearly nothing. But not only that, but I've read from many others whose sex drive dropped off after getting into the show. And those people say that they've talked with people who experienced the same thing. Usually, that lasted a few weeks.

The funny thing is, like many other fans have admitted themselves, I stopped fapping shortly after watching and getting into the show. It's like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt genuinely happy. I was sick of fapping 3 times a day just to feel good, but I couldn't stop, and then MLP comes along and suddenly I'm deleting my phone's fap folder, keeping both hands on the keyboard, and having less 'feels bad, man' moments.

On the other hand, some people have said that they have realized that they were homosexual or bisexual after seeing certain…images.

So beyond curiosity, there was a reason to believe that a very interesting phenomenon occurring here. The data will see how common these sorts of reactions are. In fact, of all of the items, this one might have the most practical effect.

I mean, if a large proportion of people said they didn't masturbate for weeks after watching MLP (and for about the same length of time,) then you're talking about a show having a direct tie to sexual urges. That's huge.
 
I should say that after seeing some comments about that question, this isn't unique to the brony fandom. I've heard this occur for other shows with fervent followings. I think that the brony fandom is simply larger and has that sort of trigger that kills sex drive.

And thus prejudices against becoming a brony were validated.
And there was much virtually no rejoicing.

Well, not empirically. Anecodotal evidence is the weakest of evidence, but it provides a reason to look into a matter. It'd be like saying all bronies like R34, because you personally know a lot of bronies who like R34.

You'd also need corroboration among other studies. No one else has asked that sort of question, so it's hard to say whether or not it's validated. It would simply supported by one study.

Also, this would be opposite of what people were saying. People would probably say that people are sexually enjoying the show, but it's actually having the opposite effect according to anecdotal evidence.

And finally, I haven't looked at the data yet. Nothing's even been empirically supported yet.

It's pretty interesting, surprising even, to hear that MLP actually did have that kind of effect. If it happened to you personally then of course you will want to know if it impacted any others in the same way. That's enough reason for the question right there.

For a bit of balance I guess I'll represent the opposite spectrum here and say that MLP had little to no influence on my sexual habits. I never fapped more or less afterwards so obviously the case can't be true for all*

I did think the question was rather odd when I saw it, having no relation to it. But I figured you had your reasons. You certainly have one

*Besides out of those who experienced a decrease, I'm betting my money that their drives returned straight back to normal once they found all the hot pics of humanized Rarity wearing tight bikini's

That effect is really interesting, I have seen it being mentioned by Onion Soup in the General thread about 2 months ago and i have seen your response as well, so basically this question wasn't really surprising for me.
Well MLP didn't change my sexual habits as well, but i am looking forward to the evaluation, because the data to this question in particular should be very interesting. Okay this is not verifiable, but i think, that the sex-drive effect happens specifically to people who consumate a good amount of porn. The two reference cases (Onion and the Anonpost) sort of indicated that.

Besides i think that this is the show's effect and that bronydom doesn't really contribute to it. I still remember how shocked Onion Soup was about all the sexual MLP content and calling every Brony a clopper.

@MDFication
I don't get it why this effect should be bad, when people who have experienced it say, that it was sort of relieving (no pun intended^^).
And you said that prejudices against becoming a brony were validated, so let me guess: You have seen about one episode and stopped there. On one hand the show was appealing to you, but also repellent. You said to yourself: Okay i get it, i know why people are into the show, but it isn't made for me.
And going a bit deeper: You are afraid, that if you would watch more episodes, you could become one of them – a brony. So you decided to stay away from it.

lol wut…..

im so confused…

how does feeling good makes you stop masturbating?

people weren't geniunly happy before seeing the show? yeah it's good BUT IT'S JUST A SHOW.

how can 20 minutes of cartoony goodness a week can relieve stress and depression?

why did it only last for a few weeks?
well, probebly because the effect slowly wore and fans just got used to the show…

and how come people need to masturbate 3 times a day to 'feel good'? it's just a momentary pleasure…

sorry, i live in a religous bubble my whole life so i don't know much about this….

Well, I'll preface this with what I've come to know about social science:

We don't know anything for sure.

Some theories are better supported than others, but humans are messy subjects. It's hard to peg down anything with much accuracy. But again, some theories are better supported than others, and often, people have beliefs that are even less supported empirically than the prevailing theories of social science fields.

So that's why I do what I do for a living and for fun. It's the best we've got, and it's not terrible science. Not perfect, but I do not think it's terrible.
 
I'd also like to say that I can't really avoid some direct and possibly explicit sexual talk in explaining this, so if you don't like that sort of thing, then I would not read any further in this post.

how does feeling good makes you stop masturbating?

Some people masturbate for a variety of reasons. It's immediate, often undeniable, and instant pleasure that you can control. It's something that doesn't have to include other people. It's a enjoyable experience without a lot of the other downfalls of other immediate ways to feel good (e.g. alcohol and other recreational drugs can be unhealthy and addictive, medications and other drugs can be the same when abused, tickling yourself never works, food can lead to overweight and obesity etc.)

Sometimes, when your life has so little control and there's nothing else good going for you, you take what you can get out of life. And like few other things, sexual pleasure and orgasm are both things people can get as long as they have a little privacy.

Potentially, the attributes of the first being exposed to FiM for fans of the show introduced a lasting feeling of happiness.

Personally, I'm generally content. I lead a blessed life, and I think it's pretty sweet (not of my own doing.) My personal habits never really changed in terms of frequency, even if the reasons for it did.

However, I was going through a tough time when I first picked up on the show (or was just coming out of a very tough time,) and for whatever reason, the show made me feel really happy. I simply didn't feel like I wanted to "partake."

In fact, I still have those days where I watch the show and I'm not really paying much attention to my desires. Why (especially when life is generally going pretty well currently?)
 
Not a clue.

And that makes this freakin' interesting.

people weren’t geniunly happy before seeing the show? yeah it’s good BUT IT’S JUST A SHOW.

First off, if you've seen the posts on other pony sites (even some of the ones in Pony General and in the FiM entry comments,) some bronies have a lot of things that are terribly wrong in their lives. Things that I did not see from kids I recently tutored, kids that I knew in college, and kids when I was in high school.

I was very close to many people, so they shared many things with me, but very few of them considered suicide. Few of them said that they were constantly depressed (nor did I see any depressive symptoms from them). No one hated the world as part of their worldview. Everyone understood social norms and social interaction, and they followed them fairly well. Everyone had at least a few friends.

I mean, I am completely at a loss for words when I hear that a person says they have no friends. …It never occurred to me that a person could be in contact with dozens if not hundreds of people, have access to clubs, sports, and other activities in high school, college, the military, and work and not have friends. It still baffles me.

Bronies (probably because they are a part of Internet culture) are an entirely different group of people. The kinds of things going on in their lives and the feelings they feel (and their overall attribtues and demographics) are entirely from what is in the mainstream counterpart.

And from more anecdotal evidence at Bronycon and at a meetup I went to in Chicago, many bronies' comments are those of people who obviously lack some basic skills and abilities in regards to interacting with people, understanding other points of view, and in other areas. Most people (Fifths included) seem as if they could get along alright, even if they were a little geeky. But some people I met…without being mean, I could see why they might have a tough time in life.
 
From all of these "field" observations and anecdotes (even though they are anecdotes), I can confidently say that a lot of bronies (not necessarily most, but a lot) or bronies are not (were not) happy. And if the stories of people who say they have no friends, they don't have any notable talents, their family lives are terrible…that would be awful for any young adult.

I think the show is odd in that it has attributes that make a person feel better. It's effect is nearly immediate, but it's not a drug of any sort. Adding in the community that arose that was known (even to an extent now) for being much nicer than other online communities, people who were unhappy found a sense of belonging and friendship that they could not find IRL.

These are things that are important to everyone, and I think the positive effects of getting into the show on some people helped to create a community that helped others to have a large network of people from which to communicate with.
 
For example, if you wanted to talk to opspe, a pretty smart guy who's a Chemisty student at a really good school, you can email him through the survey or through KYM. You like an artist? You might be able to talk to them during a Livestream. May even sketch you some art. I sent a thank you to EqD before the survey began.

People have made IRL friends and have met up with other bronies with the show as the impetus. I'm sure this isn't unique to FiM, but the factors beyond candy-colored ponies make the phenomenon way more than a show.

It's a community.

why did it only last for a few weeks?
well, probebly because the effect slowly wore and fans just got used to the show…

Mehbeh. It's hard to know for sure, because no one really knows what's happening. It's happened with other stimuli (e.g. cute anime with an avid following), but they haven't spurred the same community that would make people feel better about life beyond watching a show.

I believe that the show has triggered something in young adult males. I'm betting that it could be unique to a certain group of bronies, and I'll look to see if the data reflects that. If that's the case, then I could make more inferences than I comfortably can now.

Hey, can you view the results of the survey ahead of time just like the first one?

Well, I'll talk to opspe and Citation about it. I expect to be less busy in the coming weeks, but I don't know when I'll have to focus more on school again.

So eeeeeven though the raw percentages and counts are all of the results, I do recognize that most people have no idea what -tests, regression models, and principal component analysis are, and they can probably get more out of just seeing how few black people there are in the fandomOHGOSHBRONIESAREDORACISTIMCRYING.

Verbose wrote:

I can say personally that this happened with me. When I first started watching the show, my sex drive dropped off to nearly nothing. But Not only that, but I've read from many others whose sex drive dropped off after getting into the show. And Those people say that they've talked with people who experienced the same thing. Usually, that lasted a few weeks.

The funny thing is, like many other fans have admitted themselves, I stopped fapping shortly after watching and getting into the show. It's like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt genuinely happy. I was sick of fapping 3 times a day just to feel good, but I couldn't stop, and then MLP comes along and suddenly I'm deleting my phone's fap folder, keeping both hands on the keyboard, and having less 'feels bad, man' moments.

On the other hand, some people have said that they have realized that they were homosexual or bisexual after seeing certain…images.

So beyond curiosity, there was a reason to believe that a very interesting phenomenon was occurring here. The data will see show how common these sorts of reactions are. In fact, of all of the items, this one might have the most practical effect affect. [This is one of the rare instances of "affect" being a noun.]

I mean, if a large proportion of people said they didn't masturbate for weeks after watching MLP (and for about the same length of time ), then you're talking about a show having a direct tie to sexual urges. That's huge.
 
I should say that after seeing some comments about that question, this isn't unique to the brony fandom. I've heard this occur for other shows with fervent followings. I think that the brony fandom is simply larger and has that sort of trigger that kills sex drive.

I wasn't aware this was an issue, but I'd like to suggest if it is at all possible to differentiate between frequency of masturbation and frequency of sex with a partner rather than simply a change in "sex drive" then you should. As you pointed out, a common factor in masturbation is desire for control due to overall unhappiness. The factors that influence sexual activity with a partner are often quite different. (Apparently Katawa Shoujo has a similar affect (see 5th item in 2nd column), but I think the reasons there are different.)

BTW, I didn't hear back from you about whether you needed editing help…

>_>
 
The questionnaire was rushed, and since Season 3 isn't out even now, it really didn't have to be.

But (I have no issues with starting sentences with conjunctions) that was something that we could have stood to have given more thought. In practicality, most bronies are single and aren't in any sort of a relationship. They could have "cut friends" or something, but I wouldn't bet on it. Furthermore, I would say that people have sex for different reasons as well. Could be due to sex drive, could be due to wanting to please your partner who's aroused (regardless of your own state), could be due to being bored.

Perhaps the item shouldn't have had anything to do with sexual activities at all and should have had more to do with how much sexual desire you felt.
 

As for the editing, I don't know yet. If I don't rush things like the last write-up and actually check it like a proper write-up needs to be checked, then opspe, Citation, and I will probably catch enough to feel happy with it.

That isn't to say we wouldn't need it. I just won't think about it until we've written something. I haven't even looked at the data much yet.