What Is a BDSM Test? The Psychology Behind Kink Quizzes and Their Results

A BDSM test does not uncover a hidden self. It records how you describe your own sexual interests on the day you take it. Data from one widely taken test, and from quizzes inside a couples app, show how much those answers move with wording, labels, and who is answering.

The figures below come from anonymous answers to BeMoreKinky's BDSM test, developed with Lilith Foxx, a board-certified sexologist and sexuality educator, and from members' quizzes and activity ratings in the BeMoreKinky couples app, which more than 25,000 couples use. All web figures come from two earlier versions of the test, used in summer 2026; app figures cover members' answers from late 2024 to early September 2026. Only percentages and ratios are reported. Everyone in these figures chose a kink test or the app, so neither group stands in for the public. Results marked "directional" showed a steady pattern whose exact size is less certain. Unmarked results cleared a higher bar.

What Is a BDSM Test?

A BDSM test is a self-report questionnaire: you describe yourself, and the test estimates which BDSM roles and activities appeal to you. BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism. Several free BDSM tests exist online, sometimes called kink tests or BDSM quizzes.

BeMoreKinky's Quick Quiz is 25 multiple-choice questions (about five minutes) and scores seven scales, including Dominance and Submission. The Full Profile has up to 131 questions (about 15 minutes) and ranks 24 roles, among them Dominant, Submissive, Switch, Vanilla and more specific roles such as Rigger, a person who ties rope. Most Full Profile questions use a five-point agree-or-disagree scale. More than 200,000 people have taken the test.

The Full Profile asks takers to assume everyone involved is a consenting adult within agreed limits, and it states that "a quiz answer is not consent."

How to Read Your BDSM Test Results

BDSM test results are scores for roles or interest areas, and each score describes how you answered that day. On BeMoreKinky's Quick Quiz, each of the seven scales runs from 0 to 100. A Dominance score of 72 means your answers earned nearly three-quarters of the Dominance points the quiz can award. On the Full Profile, role scores also run from 0 to 100, but 50 is the midpoint, where your answers for and against a role balance out. Neither score shows how you rank against other takers or how often you do anything.

The Full Profile names a top role from those scores, and leans harder on roles that more questions covered. When two roles score within a few points of each other, the result says one is "within a few points of" the other. Treat those two roles as tied.

High scores on two roles that sound like opposites, such as Dominant and Submissive, are not a glitch. The test scores the two separately, and on the Full Profile a taker's Dominant score explained 6 to 15 percent of the variation in their Submissive score (directional). Wording and placement move the scores more than most takers expect.

Findings From the Web Test, App Quizzes and App Ratings

Every act named below is negotiated play between consenting adults.

"Both" Was the Top Answer (42 to 47 Percent) on a Giver-or-Receiver Quiz

In an eight-question app quiz, "Are you a giver or receiver?", members were asked whether they would rather give orders or take them. "Both" won on every version of the question, at 42 to 47 percent. Among members who had declared a dominant or submissive role in their profile, about a quarter chose "both," and the role they had declared was the top answer in each group. Most "both" answers came from members who call themselves switches, meaning they enjoy both leading and following, or who have not chosen a role. Between five and six in ten of those members chose "both."

Full Profile Dominant Scores Explained 6 to 15 Percent of the Variation in Submissive Scores

On the web test's Full Profile, a taker's Dominant score explained 6 to 15 percent of the variation in their Submissive score, depending on the test version (directional). If the two were opposite ends of one scale, one score would explain most of the variation in the other.

In a longer app quiz on BDSM roles, 84 percent of members who call themselves switches said they are aroused when a partner gives up control, and 88 percent said they like to give control up.

Quiz Labels Matched Sign-Up Roles 78 Percent of the Time and Explained 1 to 2 Percent of Which Side Members Said Yes To

The same giver-or-receiver app quiz gives each member a label such as Dominant-Curious or Submissive-Curious. The label matched the role the member ticked at sign-up 78 percent of the time.

Among members who also rated both the giving and the receiving side of activities yes or no, 43 percent of those labeled Dominant-Curious said yes more often on the submissive side, and 40 percent of those labeled Submissive-Curious said yes more often on the dominant side (directional). Across these members, the label explained one to two percent of the variation in which side they said yes to more often (directional).

Agreement With a Rewritten Rules Question Went From 28 to 76 Percent Between Two Test Versions

Between two versions of the web test, the share of takers who agreed changed by more than ten percentage points on nearly three in ten items (directional). One question about rules drew 28 percent agreement as "I would enjoy setting formal rules for my partner." Rewritten as "I would enjoy consensually negotiated rules that remain reviewable and revocable," it drew 76 percent (directional).

The whole statement was rewritten and moved to a different place on the page, so no single word change can explain the difference. Different people also took each version, so part of the difference may come from who took it.

A Rope Safety Statement Drew 38 Percent Agreement From Takers Who Do Not Say They Like Tying

On the web test's Full Profile, a safety statement about tying a partner without restricting blood flow drew agreement from 38 percent of takers who do not say they like tying up a partner with rope, and from 77 percent of takers who do.

One interpretation is that some takers answered for what they would do if they tried rope. Another is that some agreed with the behavior they consider correct, a tendency psychologists call social desirability. Under either interpretation, agreeing with a safety statement does not show that a taker has tied anyone.

Web Test Submissions Favoring the Submissive Side Outnumbered Dominant Ones Nearly Three to One

On the web test, submissions whose answers favor the submissive side outnumber those that favor the dominant side by nearly three to one (directional). A 2017 survey of Belgian adults found dominant and submissive interests about equally common. Any online test's averages describe only the people who chose to take it.

On Return Visits to Intense Activity Sets, Members' Yes Share Fell About Five Percentage Points

Among app members of three months or more who rated on at least five days and went back to the app's more intense sets of activity ideas, the share of ideas they said yes to on later visits was about five percentage points lower than on their first visit. Of these members, 57 percent said yes less often on later visits and 41 percent said yes more often. This is strong evidence of a small difference. The app keeps only each person's latest answer to an idea, and later visits cover different ideas, so these figures compare visits and do not track one person's answer to the same idea over time. That comparison tests a familiar claim about kink: that people who start mild later say yes to more intense ideas.

The intensity of what these members chose to rate rose over their first four days. The share whose typical choice was in the app's two most intense levels went from about 13 percent on their first day of rating beyond the starter sets to about 34 percent by their fourth, with no measured rise on the fifth (directional). Most of that rise came from members moving onto the app's premium activity sets, where the more intense ideas are; within the free sets, the ideas they rated became slightly milder (directional). So returning members rated more intense ideas without saying yes to a larger share of what they rated. The data cannot show whether they rated more intense ideas because they wanted them or because those ideas had become available.

BDSM Psychology: What Research Says About People Who Like It

How Common Is BDSM?

BDSM is not a fringe taste in general-population surveys. In a sample of 1,027 Belgian adults chosen to match the country's population, Holvoet and colleagues found in 2017 that 46.8 percent had performed at least one BDSM-related activity and 12.5 percent did so regularly.

Between 40 and 70 percent of people report BDSM fantasies, according to a 2020 scoping review by Brown and colleagues, a broad survey of 60 published articles. About 20 percent report taking part. Studies count different things, from a single act at any point in life to regular practice, so their figures vary.

Personality and Well-Being

In 2013, Wismeijer and van Assen compared 902 practitioners with 434 other adults, all volunteers who answered online questionnaires. The practitioners were less neurotic, meaning less prone to anxiety and low mood, and reported higher well-being, though they were less agreeable, a trait linked to warmth and cooperation.

What to Do With Your BDSM Test Results

A shared quiz label is a weak guide to what two people will actually say yes to. Partners get further by lining up the few statements each of them rated highest. Each web result has its own link, so a partner can open the scores without retaking the test.

For couples who want to talk about touch after comparing results, sex therapists have long used sensate focus, a step-by-step touch technique that Masters and Johnson developed; this beginner's guide to sensate focus walks through its stages.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can you score high on both Dominant and Submissive?

Yes. Dominance and Submission are separate scales on BeMoreKinky's test, so one person can score high on both. In a separate app quiz, 84 percent of people who call themselves switches said they are aroused when a partner gives up control, and 88 percent said they like giving control up. When two roles score within a few points of each other, treat them as tied.

Is a BDSM test accurate?

Only partly. Wording and placement move the answers. Between two versions of BeMoreKinky's web test, one question about rules, completely rewritten and moved, went from 28 to 76 percent agreement, though different people took each version (directional). Anonymous answering may matter too: a 2017 survey of 1,040 Quebec adults by Joyal and Carpentier found that people admitted more unusual sexual interests online than by telephone. No free online quiz is a diagnosis.

What does "Switch" mean on a BDSM test?

A Switch is someone who enjoys both the leading, dominant side and the following, submissive side of BDSM play. On BeMoreKinky's Full Profile, Switch is one of 24 ranked roles, and the test opens by asking whether you lead, follow, do both, or are unsure.

Is BDSM linked to mental health problems?

The studies we have do not back that up. In a 2020 scoping review of 60 articles, Brown and colleagues found that, in the samples they reviewed, BDSM practitioners did not show higher rates of mental health or relationship problems. A 2015 study of 1,516 adults by Joyal and colleagues advises judging a fantasy by the effect it has, and warns against labeling a fantasy unusual on content alone.

Why do people like BDSM?

Research has not settled why, though studies link BDSM interest with satisfaction and well-being. A 2017 survey of 1,040 Quebec adults found that interest in masochism, enjoying pain in a sexual setting, went with higher sexual satisfaction. The authors of a 2013 study of 902 practitioners argued for treating BDSM as recreational leisure: something people do because they like it, not because something is wrong.

BDSM test results are for self-reflection; anyone whose sexual interests cause them distress can speak with a licensed clinician.