New Kinsey Scale

New Kinsey Scale

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The Kinsey Scale was created by pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin, who called it the Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale. It was first introduced in their book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948.

Although it has a number of limitations, the Kinsey Scale was groundbreaking when it was initially published because it was the first scientific scale to suggest that human sexuality and sexual attraction are a continuum and not limited to solely heterosexual or homosexual orientations.

This article discusses the origins of the Kinsey scale, what the scale tells you, and how it works. It also explains the limitations of the scale and its impact on the study of human sexual orientation .

Kinsey, a biologist, and his team studied human sexual behavior, preferences, thoughts, and feelings by interviewing thousands of people, with Kinsey alone conducting 8,000 interviews. 1

Kinsey found that 37% of the men he interviewed had a same-sex experience sometime between adolescence and old age, a rate that jumped to 50% for unmarried men by the age of 35. 2

Meanwhile, of the women he interviewed, 13% had a same-sex experience. 3 This research made it clear that human sexuality couldn't be defined as exclusively heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

As a result, Kinsey and his colleagues created the Kinsey Scale, which classifies people into eight categories that represent a spectrum of human sexual orientation.

The Kinsey Scale ranges from 0 to 6 and includes an additional category labeled "X." Here are the various ratings and their definitions:

Kinsey and his colleagues used the scale to categorize the individuals they interviewed. Consequently, no official Kinsey "test" exists to go with the scale, even though such tests have been created by others and many can be found online.

Instead, to use the Kinsey Scale, you simply assign yourself to the category that best defines you. However, the Scale has many limitations that may make it impossible to feel if one of the categories accurately sums up your sexual preferences.

In addition, sexuality often changes over time, so even if you assign yourself a category on the Scale now, you may find another category that fits you better in the future.

While the Kinsey Scale changed perceptions of human sexuality, it didn't fully capture the complexity and nuance of sexual behavior and attraction. Based on current understandings of sexuality, the scale is limited by the following listed below.

The entirety of human sexuality isn't encompassed by the Scale's heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual categories. Today, people identify as pansexual , demisexual , and many other orientations that make up a rich tapestry of sexual behavior and attraction.

The Kinsey Scale is structured so that homosexuality and heterosexuality are inversely related. Thus, according to the Scale, the more someone identifies as heterosexual, the less they identify as homosexual and vice versa.

However, studies show opposite-sex and same-sex attraction are not related to one another but are experienced separately. As a result, homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality should be considered independent constructs. 4

The Scale categorizes people based on sexual behavior and attraction , but these are two different things that often don't correspond. 5

For example, a man might be attracted to both men and women but only engage in sexual behavior with women.

Moreover, the Scale doesn't account for a third category: sexual identity, or the label an individual uses for their sexual orientation. For instance, the man in the above example may refer to himself as heterosexual, even though he clearly experiences some homosexual attraction.

Ultimately, his sexual behavior, attraction, and identity don't match up and therefore can't be accurately captured by the categories on the Kinsey Scale.

The Scale also works off the assumption that people identify as either men or women, while completely overlooking the existence of trans, intersex , or other gender identities , further limiting who the Scale can be applied to.

Despite its limitations, the Kinsey Scale has been highly influential. When it initially came out in 1948, homosexuality was outlawed in every state in America due to sodomy laws and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual included homosexuality as a mental health disorder.

Kinsey introduced an entirely new way of thinking about sexuality and what's "normal" into this environment, paving the way for further research and changing perceptions about homosexuality and the range of human sexual experiences.

Today, there are more than 200 scales that measure sexual orientation. Two that provide a more comprehensive picture of human sexuality, specifically mentioned by the Kinsey Institute , are the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid and the Storms Sexuality Axis.

According to a 2012 study, the Kinsey Scale has found new life online despite the proliferation of more inclusive scales. For those questioning their sexual identity, the versions of the Kinsey Scale that are available across the internet help them better understand and explore their sexuality.

The study concluded that for those attempting to define their sexual identity beyond homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual orientations, the Scale helps expand their ideas of how they can define themselves. The Scaler also enables them to choose different placements on the Scale over time as their understanding of their sexual identity shifts. 7

In addition, the online forums associated with these scales offer an opportunity to discuss their perceptions of their sexuality and find affirmation as they decide which sexual identity fits them best.

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Kinsey AC, Pomeroy WR, Martin CE. Sexual behavior in the human male . Am J Public Health . 2003;93(6):894-898. doi:10.2105/ajph.93.6.894
Zietsch BP, Sidari MJ. The Kinsey scale is ill-suited to most sexuality research because it does not measure a single construct . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A . 2020;117(44):27080-27080. doi:10.1073/pnas.2015820117
Storms MD. Theories of sexual orientation . J Pers Soc Psychol . 1980;38(5):783-792. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.5.783
Drucker DJ. Marking sexuality from 0–6: the Kinsey scale in online culture . Sex Cult . 2012;16(3):241-262. doi:10.1007/s12119-011-9122-1
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Contrary to popular belief, sexuality is not binary. Sexual orientation is not limited to the two categories of heterosexua l and homosexual . Rather, there is a whole spectrum of sexuality and people may fall in between certain categories or change their minds over time. Biologist and sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey captures this idea with his seven-point heterosexual-homosexual rating scale, which is known as the Kinsey Scale. 1
Having influenced the “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960s, Alfred C. Kinsey is considered one of the most influential human sexuality researchers of the 20th century. Kinsey was born on June 23, 1894, in Hoboken, New Jersey. 2 Growing up, Kinsey had an interest in studying biology.
However, his religious father insisted that he should focus on engineering. Despite his father’s disapproval, Kinsey chose to study biology at Bowdoin College in Maine. Kinsey enjoyed studying biology so much that he continued his studies after graduation. In 1919, Kinsey earned his doctoral degree from Harvard and joined the Indiana University faculty. 2
While teaching at Indiana University, Kinsey’s research shifted from biology to sexuality. Consequently, he found himself lecturing against the rigid, sexually repressive Victorian morality of the 1800s. For instance, Kinsey taught his students that “nearly all the so-called sexual perversions fall within the range of biological normality.” 2 This meant that most behaviors that are considered sexually deviant in our society are biologically normal. He wanted to replace the constricting social norms of sexuality with a newer, broader biological definition. As a result, Kinsey’s popularity at Indiana University grew and enrollment for his lectures multiplied.
With the financial support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Kinsey began to conduct in-depth interviews with male and female students about their sexual histories. Kinsey published his research in two separate publications: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). 2
Together, the books contained over 11,000 sexual histories and “provided a series of revelations about the prevalence of masturbation, adulterous sexual activity, and homosexuality .” 2 Although the books were long and styled with dry scientific writing, both books were considered financially and critically successful.
While collecting research for his male and female sexuality publications, Kinsey and his colleagues revealed that, contrary to popular belief, sexuality is not black or white, but rather it is a large spectrum of sexual variations.
During the interviews, Kinsey uncovered that sexual attraction to the opposite-sex was not always consistent. Kinsey wrote, “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats…The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.” 1 In order to accommodate his research and findings, he created a chart that demonstrated the large diversities in sexuality: the Kinsey Scale.
The Kinsey Scale, also known as the heterosexual-homosexual rating scale, is a seven-point numerical chart that categorizes sexual preferences. For instance, a “zero” on the charts categorizes a person as exclusively heterosexual, and a “six” on the chart indicates a person is entirely homosexual.
The chart is mutually exclusive, which means that people can not belong to more than one category. For example, a person cannot be both a category “zero” and “one.” 1
It is worthwhile to note that even within a particular sexual orientation label, there is still variation. For example, scale ratings 0 and 1 are both associated with heterosexuality, even though category 1 includes incidental homosexual acts.
To break down the categorizations: ⁴
Kinsey discovered that most people did not fall under the two extremes: exclusively heterosexual (rating 0) or exclusively homosexual (rating 6). Although the attraction varied, most people displayed some sort of sexual fascination with both the opposite and same sex.
Contrary to popular belief, the Kinsey scale is not a test. Many websites claim to provide people with Kinsey scores. However, these results are completely fabricated. Kinsey was only able to categorize a person after extensive, detailed, and personalized interviews.
Criticisms of the Kinsey Scale and Publications
The most serious criticism of Kinsey’s publications is that his samples of 11,000 interviewees “were not representative of the general population.” 3 Most of the people that Kinsey interviewed were students that attended Indiana University and the surrounding areas. Opponents argued that his sample population was skewed towards urban, college-aged students. They claimed that the urban youth were much more likely to experiment in their sexuality than the general population.
Additionally, the Kinsey Scale only measures sexual behavior and fails to include emotions. ⁴ Individuals can have sexual feelings or desires and not act on them. These individuals with unstated sexual feelings would be incorrectly categorized on the Kinsey Scale.
The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid was introduced by Dr. Fritz Klein in his book, The Bisexual Option . This grid incorporated some of the criticisms of the Kinsey Scale and created a more in-depth and flexible categorization. Instead of determining sexual orientation based solely on behaviors, Klein measured sexual attraction, sexual behavior, sexual fantasies , emotional preference, social preference, heterosexual/homosexual lifestyle, and self-identification.⁵ By including additional factors to his test, Klein was able to account for sexual feelings or thoughts that had not been acted on. Additionally, Klein measured past, present, and desired behavior. This element captures the dynamic aspect of sexuality and records its change over time.
Using the seven aforementioned variables and the three different time measurements, Klein created a 21-space grid that incorporates many of the different aspects of sexuality. Each category receives a rating from 1 (heterosexual only) to 7 (homosexual only). ⁵ The chart is a more holistic way of viewing sexuality and provides more variability than the original Kinsey Scale.
While these scales and grids can be helpful in discovering one’s sexuality , they do not always cover every aspect of the sexuality spectrum. They should be used as tools for understanding and self-assessment. If you are in the process of discovering your sexuality, it is worthwhile to speak to a professional therapist if you are having trouble grappling with the many dimensions of your sexuality.

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In 1948, Dr. Alfred Kinsey developed a scale for measuring human sexuality which determined whether a person was gay, straight, or something in between. Where do you think you fall on the scale?
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