This might be a bit forward of us, but we’re asking anyway: how do you feel about tickling? Is it just something you used to torture your siblings as a kid, or is it still something you like to incorporate into more ? If so, you might well have knismolagnia, otherwise known as a tickle fetish. And you may be pleased to hear that scientists have just completed their first comprehensive study to learn all about it.
“Previous studies on ticklishness have mainly focused on the sensory consequences and playful aspects of tickling,” said co-author Dr Shimpei Ishiyama from the University Medical Center Mainz in a . “In our study, we investigated the role of tickling in a sexual context for the first time.”
We’d probably make a “slap and tickle” joke right about now, if we were those sorts of people.
This study forms part of a wider research project on the neuroscience behind positive experiences and laughter. For this study, the authors first reached out to a number of prominent fetishists on social media platform X, which yielded five who were willing to participate further. These five, with a combined following of 27,956 users, agreed to share a link to a survey in either Japanese or English, depending on the language they usually posted in.
Over the course of the 108 days the link was open for, the researchers collected 719 anonymous responses to both multiple choice and free text questions about tickling preferences and sexuality. Some surprising themes began to emerge.
“[W]e are challenging previous findings because the range of experiences that lead to sexual pleasure is much wider than previously recognized,” Ishiyama explained.
Most of the respondents said they found tickling sexually , and around a quarter said they had achieved orgasm just through tickling. Over 20 percent reported they had enjoyed tickling sessions for over an hour at a time. The data also identified two distinct roles in involving tickling: the tickler and the ticklee.
There were some consistent themes around which parts of the body ticklers and ticklees like to focus on – feet featured heavily, unsurprisingly – but there was also some variation depending on the nature of the being discussed.
Here’s something they didn’t tell you in school: there are two distinct types of tickling. There’s gargalesis, which is more vigorous and typically leads to a stronger reaction, and knismesis, characterized by gentler touches to the skin. Knismesis was favored around regions like the ears, neck, and back, whereas gargalesis was generally preferred on the torso and armpits.
The data also provided some insight into why some people love being tickled or doing the tickling, with responses including enjoying the feeling of submissiveness, or taking pleasure in the ticklee’s physical reaction.
Another interesting finding that emerged was the role of in the development of a tickling fetish, with several respondents saying that depictions of tickling in cartoons they’d watched as a kid triggered their continuing interest in the practice in adulthood.
There’s still a lot we don’t understand about the interplay between sexual pleasure and tickling, but the only way we’re going to find out more is through studies like this one.
As Ishiyama says, “Tickling is an intimate activity that requires a certain level of mutual trust. It can bond individuals and serve as an outlet for sexual energy. Future studies should therefore investigate the mechanisms by which tickling triggers sexual pleasure. Our study results could pave the way for this further research into human sexuality.”
The study is published in .