If anything is going to prove that there is a kink for almost anything, this is it.
There is actually a kink for being tickled. Yes, that thing that most of us hate but some of us love, actually gets some people off. It’s called ‘knismolagnia’ and it refers to sexual arousal or gratification from either being tickled or tickling somebody.
According to PsyPost: “This fetish can involve various dynamics, such as the exchange of power, the sensation of touch, and the emotional reactions elicited by tickling.”
In a recent study, researchers sought to get to the bottom of this fetish and figure out what exactly makes it work for people.
Why people get off on being tickled during sex
Speaking to PsyPost, study author Sarah Dagher said: “Tickling has been studied as a tactile sensation in the context of playfulness in biology and documented as a form of torture in ancient Rome, therefore it appears that tickling can serve multiple functions and hold different meanings which made us wonder whether it can also be implicated in human sexual behaviour.
“There is almost no literature on tickling in a sexual context, except for a very few case reports. In addition, we encountered a tickle fetishism community online which made it possible to conduct this survey study.”
Of the 719 participants that responded to the researcher’s survey, 88% said that they derived sexual pleasure from being tickled alone and didn’t need other forms of sexual stimulation.
Additionally, a quarter of respondents said that they experienced orgasms exclusively through tickling.
Even the types of tickling that aroused respondents differed. Most preferred light tickling with feather-light touches but others loved vigorous tickling which is more intense and leads to uncontrollable laughter.
According to Dagher, most participants reported childhood experiences to shape their tickle fetish. 70% of those who enjoyed being tickled during childhood continued to enjoy it as adults. However, only 20% of those who preferred to tickle others reported enjoying being tickled during childhood.
Interesting stuff!