Mapping Pleasure

We continuously conduct large-scale, bottom-up qualitative research using a Stages-Of-Change model, to gather the discoveries and techniques that led some women to flourish, the barriers that prevented others, and the innovations women have discovered to cross those barriers.

We find the patterns and themes, focusing as much as possible on practical strategies. Then we conduct large-scale, nationally representative studies in partnership with Indiana University and Kinsey Institute researchers. We publish the findings in peer-reviewed journals and turn them into public-facing resources like OMGYES. Selected publications about women’s pleasure:

Herbenick D, Fu TJ, Arter J, Sanders SA, Dodge B. Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94. J Sex Marital Therapy

Hensel D, von Hippel C, Lapage C, Perkins R (2021) Women’s Techniques For Making Vaginal Penetration More Pleasurable: Results from a Nationally Representative Study of Adult Women in the United States. PLoS ONE

We also study the ways people learn and internalize this information, in an effort to find scalable web-based interventions that people actually want to use:

Hensel D, von Hippel C, Sandidge R, Lapage C, Zelin N & Perkins R (2021) “OMG, Yes!”: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of an Online Intervention for Female Sexual Pleasure, The Journal of Sex Research

Wagging the Dog: Getting Institutions to Prioritize Pleasure

We are working backwards from a time when institutions like insurance companies, healthcare systems, universities and governments recognize the importance of making evidence-based information about pleasure and sexual flourishing available to their populations. To accomplish this, we study their decision processes and reluctances, and map the studies required to provide them indisputable evidence that these factors lead directly to outcomes they care most about. For instance, a decrease in sexual assault outcomes for universities. Physical and psychological wellness leading to fewer medical visits and expenses for insurance companies. etc.

The Human Pleasure Project

One research arm at For Goodness Sake applies a rigorous, empirical and interdisciplinary approach to discovering the specific cognitive mechanisms through which sexual pleasure and agency increase overall well-being. Our project portfolio is diverse, encompassing a suite of important and – to date, understudied – questions, including:

• Understanding how the experience of sexual pleasure, self-efficacy and agency influence other forms of well-being, such as social connectedness, positive affect and hedonic responsiveness, stress resilience, self-efficacy, and physical wellness.

• Uncovering latent patterns of individual difference in the experience of sexual pleasure, hedonic insight and granularity, belief creation and updating, and well-being.

• Discovering how beliefs about pleasure develop, spread and change within social networks.

• Moving beyond self-report to create novel objective measures for assessing multiple aspects of reward, motivation and belief.

• Adopting a precision-medicine approach to sexual pleasure, agency and well-being through the use of machine learning and predictive modeling in large samples.