One construct: current self-reported appeal
Every core question asks how appealing a negotiated adult scenario feels right now. The answer scale runs symmetrically from strongly unappealing to strongly appealing, with It depends / unsure at the midpoint. The test does not ask whether you have done the activity, identify with a role, possess technical skill, or would immediately consent to try it.
Published measurement work treats orientation, attitudes, practices, communication, and experience as different constructs. Model 1.0.0 therefore makes a narrower claim: it scores present appeal and context.
The eight affinity dimensions
| Dimension | What contributes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Setting pace, structure, and agreed rules while taking responsibility for guidance. | This does not imply controlling everyday relationships or ignoring consent. |
| Surrender | Handing over some control and accepting guidance within negotiated limits. | This does not imply weakness or submission in every part of life. |
| Intensity Giving | Creating strong, controlled sensations while reading reactions and adjusting. | This does not imply an interest in non-consensual harm. |
| Intensity Receiving | Receiving strong sensations, challenges, or tests of composure within agreed limits. | This does not mean enjoying injury or distress in daily life. |
| Restraint & Craft | Restraint, restricted movement, tools, precision, and visual or practical craft. | This is independent from being dominant or submissive. |
| Service & Care | Service, responsibility, ritual, attentiveness, and care before or after intensity. | This does not prescribe gender roles or assumed obligations. |
| Play & Challenge | Playful resistance, rules games, wit, teasing, and negotiated back-and-forth tension. | Playful resistance must remain clearly distinct from a real no. |
| Exploration & Ritual | Novel dynamics, atmosphere, roles, scenarios, anticipation, and planning together. | Curiosity does not mean having no boundaries or seeking high risk. |
Question order and scoring
There are four questions per dimension. Each answer is scored 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. A dimension score is the sum of its four answers divided by 16, then multiplied by 100. Scores are affinity indexes for this response set, not population percentiles.
Questions are shown in a fixed interleaved order instead of grouping one dimension at a time. This makes the scoring structure less obvious and reduces repetitive agreement patterns. Answers stay in the browser and the calculation does not call an external API.
How profile matches work
The result shows scores for all 10 supported roles. Each score combines the eight dimensions with narrower tags such as restraint-giving, ritual-planning, or playful-resistance. These formulas were created for this test and have not been independently validated as personality types. The highest role score determines the profile:
- If the highest profile match is below 45, the result is Open-ended Explorer.
- If the two highest matches are within 7 points and the highest is at least 45, they form a blended profile.
- Switch receives its full formula only when Direction and Surrender are both at least 60.
- Displayed numbers are rounded only after comparisons are complete.
Why boundaries are separate
Low appeal is not automatically a hard limit, and strong appeal is not automatic permission. The optional Private Boundary Map appears only after the result. Its categorical choices never affect scores and never enter a result link or image.
Evidence and limits
The content model was cross-checked against measurement research, a systematic review, consent research, clinical guidance, and community professional material. Each source answers a narrower question; no single paper validates this tool.
- Kink Orientation Scale: supports separating multiple constructs.
- Sadomasochism Checklist: distinguishes attraction from behavior frequency and giving from receiving.
- BDSM Proclivity Scale: separates attitudes and experiences.
- Systematic scoping review: informs non-pathologizing language.
- Clinical guidelines for kink-involved clients: informs respectful professional boundaries.
- NCSF Best Practices for Consent to Kink: informs the consent premise.
Validation roadmap
Before calling a future version validated, the work requires expert content review, cognitive interviews, a larger independent sample, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on separate samples, test–retest assessment, and convergent and discriminant validity checks. Material model changes will receive a new version rather than silently altering old shared results.