The DOI matches its Crossref record; 108 of the 108 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 3 of the 24 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
“Sex without Sexual Attraction?“: Perceived Sexual Experiences of Indian Sex-favourable Asexuals
Open accessAbstract
Asexuality is not a complete aversion to sex or sexual activity; instead, there are a range of ways that some asexual people engage with sexual activities. The current qualitative study explored the sexual experiences (self-pleasure and partnered activities) of sex-favourable asexuals within the Indian cultural context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants and analysed using thematic analysis. Results revealed how sex-favourable asexuals experience sexual arousal without experiencing ‘sexual attraction’, leading them to engage in sexual activities. Participants understood their sexuality through feeling different from others, followed by self-exploration, resulting in self-acceptance. Further, participants identified self-pleasure as a tool for self-empowerment and stress management, leading to a preference for masturbation over partner-involved sex. Partner-involved sex was primarily due to extrinsic demands (peer pressure, pressure from partner). This study calls attention towards developing inclusive practices, sex education and community awareness about this understudied section of the queer community and, most importantly, enabling representation of their experiences within the academic literature about sex and sexuality.
Overview
CoChat Summary
TL;DR
This qualitative study explored how 15 Indian sex-favourable asexuals perceive self-pleasure and partner-involved sexual experiences, finding that they can experience sexual arousal without sexual attraction. Participants often preferred self-pleasure for empowerment and stress relief, while partner-involved sex was largely driven by extrinsic pressures and frequently experienced negatively.
Key findings
- Participants described sexual arousal without sexual attraction, with non-sexual partner qualities such as personality, voice, aesthetic appeal, and emotional bond being more important than sexual attraction.
- Of the 15 participants, 11 had engaged in both partner-involved sexual activity and self-pleasure, two only in partner-involved sex, and two only in self-pleasure; 10 out of 15 expressed aversion towards partner-involved sexual activities, reporting numbness, blankness, dissatisfaction, disgust, or dissociation.
- Self-pleasure was framed as biologically driven, a stress-management tool, and an expression of self-love/empowerment, leading to a preference for masturbation over partner-involved sex.
- Partner-involved sex was primarily motivated by extrinsic factors such as peer pressure, fear of missing out, partner pressure, guilt, and fear of abandonment; one participant was an outlier who reported positive and satisfying partner-involved sex.
Methods
- Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants aged 18–42 years (*M* = 24.86), recruited through purposive and snowball sampling via social media platforms dedicated to the Indian asexual community from August to September 2021.
- Inclusion criteria required participants to identify as sex-favourable asexuals, be 18+, have had some sexual experience (partnered or self-pleasure), and reside in India; participants were not given a fixed definition of sex-favourable asexuality.
- Interviews lasted 45–70 minutes, were conducted in English via Zoom, and were analysed using Clarke and Braun’s (2014) inductive thematic analysis, producing five overarching themes.
Limitations
- The paper states it could not encompass all socioeconomically, culturally, and linguistically diverse individuals within India; it also did not differentiate or explicitly address participants’ sexual and romantic preferences or relationship status.
- The paper notes that lack of awareness and non-inclusivity of asexuality could considerably impact participants’ experiences, and that the study excluded traumatic sexual experiences and mental health outcomes, potentially constructing an overly positive account.
- Evident from the text: the sample was small (15), highly educated (all had a bachelor’s degree or higher), English-speaking, and recruited through social media and snowball sampling, limiting generalisability.
Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.
Integrity signals
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Cites
Statistics
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Claims the paper makes
1 Valid · 4 Not valid · 12 Not checked · 78 Own results and interpretations
The cited sources that could be checked couldn’t confirm or dispute this claim.
In the paper
“and found non-sexual features of their partner (e.g. personality, intelligence, voice, emotional connection or matching socioemotional views) attractive rather than their physical appearance”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Amos & McCabe, 2017
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Could not verifycites Barelds et al., 2011 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
Our copy of Barelds et al. (2011) consists only of institutional-record metadata — the title/author block (no section), the BibTeX/RIS export fields and citation strings (Abstract, pp. n/a), and the Handle.net record noting a 'Final publisher's version, 148 KB'. The only substantive text is the abstract, which describes comparing reality benchmarks (partner self-ratings vs observer ratings) for positive physical-attractiveness illusions in 70 couples and a small photograph effect on women's ratings; it says nothing about participants finding non-sexual features (personality, intelligence, voice, emotional connection, socioemotional matching) attractive rather than physical appearance. Searched: 'non-sexual features personality intelligence voice attractive partner', 'socioemotional views emotional connection voice intelligence', 'participants rated partner attractiveness procedure measures results' — no body text (Introduction/Methods/Results/Discussion) is present in our copy, so the decisive content may simply be missing. (LLM, conf=0.72)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Clark et al., 2022 source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“We also found that sex-favourable asexuals undergo a long process of critical reflection regarding their sexuality; actively exploring before coming to terms with, accepting, identifying and coming out - in line with previous research”
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites González-Álvarez et al., 2022
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Partly supportedcites Kelleher & Murphy, 2022 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
Our copy does describe the process the claim attributes: the Discussion states that 'discovery of an asexual identity involved a process of active searching' initiated by feeling different, with participants exploring other sexual identities (lesbian, bisexual, demisexual) before 'coming to terms with' and identifying as asexual, and Results/Discussion cover subsequent identification and disclosure/coming out. But the population qualifier 'sex-favourable asexuals' is not supported: the term sex-favourable does not appear in our copy (attitudes towards sex are only noted generically via Brotto & Yule, 2017), and the paper explicitly frames the discovery process as common across participants and 'not dependent upon age, gender, or a specific sexual or romantic identity', with its illustrative accounts of sexual exploration involving dislike of or repulsion from sex rather than a favourable stance toward it. (LLM, conf=0.78)
- Partly supportedcites Scherrer, 2008 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
Scherrer (2008) does describe a reflective, staged process of coming to an asexual identity for the study's 102 AVEN-recruited asexual participants generally — e.g. Findings > "Essentially" Asexual, where Mollie says "I didn't call myself asexual for several months because I needed to have a good long think about the whole matter," and Jeanine/Christine describe years before finding the language — and the Conclusions frame this as a shared "social-psychological process of coming to an identity." However, our copy contains no "sex-favourable" subgroup or any categorization of participants by attitude toward sex (the closest material, Findings > The Meaning of the Sexual, discusses participants who enjoy cuddling/kissing or "pleasing my wife" but redefines those as non-sexual rather than marking them as a sex-favourable group), so the claim's attribution of this process specifically to sex-favourable asexuals is not supported. Nor does the paper report a "coming out" stage: searches for coming out/disclosure returned only identity-disclosure language about finding community online, not a coming-out finding. (LLM, conf=0.68)
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The majority of the participants expressed that this expectation made them feel incomplete.”
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is to be noted that for a substantial number of participants, the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for engaging in partner-involved sexual activity were negative in nature.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Instead, our participants reported unique experience of sexual arousal without the presence of sexual attraction - mirroring the findings of Zheng and Su (2018)”
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Zheng and Su (2018) source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
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Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Discussion · p. 15
“the way participants' perceived (subjec tive) their experiences of sexual activity is of prime importance rather than labelling it objectively as negative or positive.”
§ Note · p. 16
“Therefore the researchers tried to make a judgement about an experience being 'good' or 'bad' on behalf of participants.”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ KEYWORDS · p. 2
“asexuality fundamentally entails an absence of a sexual desire itself”
§ KEYWORDS · p. 2
“due to the varying levels of sexual arousal or desire, the asexual spectrum could be divided into sex-favourable, sex-repulsed or sex-indifferent asexuals”
Cited works that were retracted
Works this paper cites that were later retracted, from the retraction notices publishers deposit. Major when the notice came out before this paper was published.
Rated major: it would touch a result — a value a result rests on, reported and recomputed p-values on opposite sides of the significance level, two passages that conflict with no sign which is right, or a cited work retracted before this paper was published.
Cited work 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.048 · retracted 2021-12-01 · notice 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.048 · this paper published 2025-06-19
Citations
Cites
1 retracted
RETRACTED: Sexual orientation, neuropsychiatric disorders and the neurotransmitters involved
Li, H., Fernández‐Guasti, A., Xu, Y., & Swaab, D. F. (2021) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.048 · Cited by 2
RetractedPurposive sampling: complex or simple? Research case examples
Campbell, S., Greenwood, M., Prior, S., Shearer, T., Walkem, K., Young, S., Bywaters, D., & Walker, K. (2020) · Journal of Research in Nursing · doi:10.1177/1744987120927206 · Cited by 3,772
Terry, G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017) · The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.4135/9781526405555.n2 · Cited by 2,448
Ekman, P. (1992) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037//0033-295x.99.3.550 · Cited by 2,372
Sample size for qualitative research
Boddy, C. R. (2016) · Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal · doi:10.1108/qmr-06-2016-0053 · Cited by 1,669
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2014) · Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_311 · Cited by 885
Asexuality: Prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample
Bogaert, A. F. (2004) · The Journal of Sex Research · doi:10.1080/00224490409552235 · Cited by 375
A Sex-Positive Framework for Research on Adolescent Sexuality
Harden, K. P. (2014) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691614535934 · Cited by 313
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
(2022) · doi:10.1145/3491102 · Cited by 308
Media: A Catalyst for Resilience in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Youth
Craig, S. L., McInroy, L., McCready, L. T., & Alaggia, R. (2015) · Journal of LGBT Youth · doi:10.1080/19361653.2015.1040193 · Cited by 268
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Joseph, S. (1996). Gay and lesbian movement in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 31(33), 2228–2233. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4404520
- 10.9790/0837-2711012737 · DOI
- Pluckhan L. C. (2023). Self-esteem differences between asexual individuals and other sexual orientations [Doctoral dissertation]. Alliant International University. https://www.proquest.com/openview/0231092f66d8c06aa43894be8c01a217/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Cited by
Clark, A. N., Walters, T. L., & Hanna‐Walker, V. R. (2025) · Psychology and Sexuality · doi:10.1080/19419899.2024.2446774 · Cited by 1
Asexuality, Intimate Relationships, and Family
Glass, V. Q. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-22857-4_5
Introduction to Asexuality and Affirmative Care
Glass, V. Q. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-22857-4_1
Asexuality: History, Background, and Contemporary Issues
Glass, V. Q. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-22857-4_2
Metadata
- Authors
- Agrawal, N., Shainy, M. R., Sebastian, J., Srivastava, A., & Scoats, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Christ University (IN)
- Jain University (IN)
- Central University of Karnataka (IN)
- Birmingham City University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Agrawal, Nandini
- Venue
- Psychology & Sexuality
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-06-19
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1260-1280
- ISSN
- 1941-9902 (ISSN-L)
- 1941-9899
- OpenAlex
- W4411502541
- Semantic Scholar
- 545d11105a121b7bc0cd312a6c47db67aa74b47e
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 108
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 2.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- doi.org/10.1080/policies-text-data-mining (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychology and Sexuality (publishedVersion)
- Research Square (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues
- Keywords
- asexuality, sexual experience, self-pleasure, masturbation, self-acceptance, self-empowerment, stress management, peer pressure, Indian culture, queer communities, sex education
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: “Sex without Sexual Attraction?“: Perceived Sexual Experiences of Indian Sex-favourable Asexuals. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/19419899.2025.2518977
- The paper
- Agrawal, N., Shainy, M. R., Sebastian, J., Srivastava, A., & Scoats, R. (2025). “Sex without Sexual Attraction?“: Perceived Sexual Experiences of Indian Sex-favourable Asexuals. Psychology & Sexuality. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2025.2518977
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