Forum:The Furry Sociological Survey

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Greetings,

I’m here to tell you about the Furry Sociological Survey. You may or may not know, but a few years ago David Rust, a furry and history student, conducted a survey of 360 furs. Now in 2006, I hope to replicate his survey, as well as ask a few questions that Rust didn’t ask.

So why do this? The answer is: out of curiosity. Once the results have been collected I will collate them and present them online so that you can see what trends we have amongst us furs.

If you wish to complete the survey all you need to do is to download the Word document file or read the HTML file from this website: http://www.furnation.com/TheFurrySurvey/

Then just fill it in and email it to furrysurvey@gmail.com. Be sure to read the consent statement and instructions carefully.

With many thanks, Kyle (furry and first year psychology student)

PS. There is no deadline by which the survey must be submitted. I’ll keep taking them as long as people keep sending them in. But it would be appreciated if you don’t take too long.

Also if you don’t have Microsoft Word on your computer just email me and I’ll send you version of the survey that you can work with, such as a txt file.

And also, you can see the original survey by Rust here: http://www.visi.com/~phantos/furrysoc.html

Given that furries are all over world, wouldn't question 14 really need to specify the currency as well? Higgs Raccoon 22:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

I've already got it under control, Higgs. I just use a currency converter to convert their national currency into US dollars. I already know their nationality from question 3, and I find it's easier to do this myself rather than make participants have to find their own currency converter and do it themselves. -- Kyle

How do you know their nationality from question 3? It seems to ask for continent only? -- Higgs Raccoon 22:29, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

True, but given that the salary options are in $10,000 integers all I need is the continent, given that currency values don't vary too much between countries within a continent. Actually, there hasn't been much need to convert currency as the majority of participants have been from North America.

It might be helpful if you told us a little more about yourself. All we have right now is a first name, and I personally feel uncomfortable about disclosing some of the information in that survey to what is essentially an anonymous email address. Thanks. --Douglas Muth 23:53, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm...this person does seem to have an article here...looking at contributions from that IP, we find that they edited this article, which has a history of a few months here on WikiFur. Also, that article was formerly called Edge, of which there is a user here by a similar name that edited that article, leaving commit messages indicating this was them. So maybe not enough to make you comfortable, but at least it doesn't look like someone just showing up out of the blue. It'd be a rather elaborate cover up if it was one. Simba B 00:08, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

It does appear to be Kyle Evans - there is information on the survey on his Fur Affinity page here. -- Higgs Raccoon 00:23, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Kyle -- as a junior majoring in Biological Science/Psychology who performed a similar mass-survey this past spring (on human sexuality), I have to say that you're missing quite a few options for sexual preferences which could be seen as researcher bias. For example, you have polyandry, but not polygyny (multiple female partners). And a big one that's missing is asexuality (I forgot that on mine and had several people reply to my survey saying it should have been included). Those who identify as queer often prefer that as a label over 'bisexual', so that is something to consider adding as well. In addition, saying 'other' for gender is a little disrespectful to transgendered people; you should list transgendered as an option as well rather than lumping it with everything else under 'other'. Just my 2 cents. Spaz Kitty 00:24, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok Douglas, I'll tell you a little about myself. My name is Kyle C. Evans and I'm a furry (obviously) whose been in the fandom for around two years who resides in Australia. I'm also a psychology student. I completed my first year of psychology at Deakin University this year, recieving a Distinction for my first semester and a Credit for the second semester while doing a major in film. Also, as for disclosing sensitive information, you are completely annoymous. Given the number of surveys I'm getting I don't even look a the name or email of the person, so I don't remember a thing about them. And after the study is completed every single survey will be deleted. I hope this makes you feel more comfortable about the survey now, but if you want to know more about anything, feel free to ask! Also, Higgs can vouch for my existence - I met him briefly at MiDfur this year. -- Kyle Evans

Thanks Spaz Kitty for pointing out those flaws in the survey. Quite a few people have also mentioned them, although you're the first to remark that "other" might be seen as insensitive, which definately isn't my intention. The reason for omitting transgender and asexuality as a response to the questions and just having a generic "other" option is because I'm fairly ignorant of these topics and I felt there might be other, less well known genders or sexualities, so I felt it would be easier to simply have an other option and let the participant describe their gender or sexuality. The ommision of polygyny was again, due to ignorance on my part. Although, in my defense, David Rust, who did the original study also made the same ommision. I've done surveys and studies while studying psychology at university, but the surveys were also preconstructed by our professors. I have to say, this survey has definately been a hands on learning experience. -- Kyle Evans

Don't forget to share what you learnt with us as well, for the use of future surveys. :-) --GreenReaper^(talk) 05:58, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Of course, GreenReaper, that goes without saying. The website at Furnation.com where I'm hosting the survey files will eventually become the website where the survey results will be published. I'll be sure to post a link here when it's all done.--Kyle Evans

Holy HTML Batman! There’s finally a website up for the Furry Sociological Survey. http://www.furnation.com/thefurrysurvey/ Oh, and responses to the survey are still welcome. But I think I’ll be wrapping things up soon. -- Kyle Evans

Finally published! http://www.furrysociology.net/ -- Kyle Evans