2.6 Related Fandom Interests

Given that so many furries have been shown in past studies to have an interest in related fandoms (e.g., Anime, Science Fiction), we assessed whether there were observable trends in furries’ preference for other, non-furry media and activities¹.

With regard to “other interests”, furries’ interests were categorized into 76 distinct activities. The most popular ones are displayed below.

Most Frequently Identified Non-Furry Interests

Worth noting in this list is the fact that furries’ alternative interests tend to overlap considerably with other traditionally “geek” interests (e.g., science fiction, video games). Additionally, coinciding with other findings suggesting that furry is, first and foremost, a fandom and not a sexual fetish², it’s telling that kink and other fetish interests were considerably lower down on the list, being provided by fewer than 5% of participants.

While the question was open-ended, it reinforced our earlier study on furry interests³, in which furries indicated their interest in a closed list of related fandoms and activities, on a 7-point scale:

In a similar vein, we asked furries about the genres of television/film and music they tended to prefer, resulting in 39 and 69 distinct categories, respectively.

Most Frequently Identified TV/Film and Music Genres

In another study⁴ we asked furries whether or not they identified as members other fan communities. Nearly half of furries (44.0%) were anime fans, and about 1 in 5 were bronies (fans of My Little Pony, 21.1%). Consistent with the findings above, only 10.5% of furries considered themselves to be sport fans.

1. Anthrocon 2017 Study
2. See sections 5.4 Frequency of Porn Use; 5.7 Preference for Erotic Furry Media
3. International Furry Survey: Summer 2011
4. IARP 2014 3-fandom study