We have 5 studies available for participation!
Each and every academic study requires university ethics approval.
If you wish to know more about research ethics and about our process, please visit Office of Research Ethics at the University of Waterloo.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Dr Sharon Roberts
Study 1:
Furries: Interested in doing an online study about fantasy and the furry fandom? Click here to take part in the 2016 IARP Fantasy Study – Part I. This study will be open until Saturday, November 5, 2016. 
Study 2:
Furscience Universal Recruitment Project (FurP). Become part of the FurP!
This project is designed to create a database of basic demographic and other personality (e.g., happiness, sexual orientation, wellbeing, gender identity) information that will permit the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP; Furscience.com) team to contact participants for specific research projects.
For example, we often want to study groups that occupy unique identity markers in the fandom (artists, people with multiple fursonas, greymuzzles, therians, females, LGTBQ, people with disabilities, new fandom members, long-time fandom members, etc).
To read the informed consent letter and participate, click here.
Study 3:
Therian/Otherkin Focus Groups and Interviews:
At Anthrocon 2017, the FurScience (International Anthropomorphic Research Project) team of researchers conducted three different Therian/Otherkin related research projects. We know that many individuals who may be interested in participating in this kind of research project may not attend conventions for numerous different reasons. However, if you are interested in any of our three studies related to Therian and Otherkin identities, (Focus Group on Therians/Otherkin Identity, Focus Group on Therians/Otherkin and Nature, one-on-one Therian/Otherkin interviews with Dr. Fein) or bodily experiences (e.g., shifting, phantom limbs) and would like to participate in research about these topics in an online format, we invite you to check out our online amalgamated version of the three studies. Go to this link:
To read the informed consent letter and participate, click here.
There, you will find the informed consent letter and can decide if you would like to participate in the project in our online format
Study 4: Furscience 2017 International Survey. Click here or below:
Study 5: Autism Study
We are looking to understand the experiences of furries who are on the autism spectrum. You do not have to be formally diagnosed with autism to participate. You are welcome to participate in the survey if you have a formal autism spectrum diagnosis or identify as being on the autism spectrum, if you have a friend or loved one on the autism spectrum, or if you are interested in the topic for other reasons. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee (ORE# 22246).
Click here to participate!
Study 6: Big Furry Survey
We want to share our big annual Anthrocon Study with our online Participants. The survey was first released in paper version at Anthrocon, July 2018. Please see the informed consent for all the study details. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee (ORE# 22134). Click here to participate
Study 7: Furscience Online Summer 2019 Study
In this study, we will be collecting information about numerous topics with the hope of gaining a better understanding of the furry fandom and with the goal of testing the replicability of findings observed by other researchers who have studied furries. Specifically, we are exploring the nature of being a fan of furry content, motivation to be a furry, the nature of furries’ interaction with fandom-related material, sexuality, demographics, fursonas, and relationships. This survey is estimated to take approximately 30 minutes. Participants should be 18+ and questions about adult content are included in this study. This study has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.
Click HERE to read the informed consent and to participate!
Study 8: Fandoms and Fantasy Engagement Study (Release July 2, 2019)
In this study, Drs. Sharon Roberts, Stephen Reysen, Courtney Plante and Kathy Gerbasi will be collecting information about numerous topics with the hope of gaining a better understanding of the furry fandom and other fandoms. We will be collecting information about numerous topics with the hope of gaining a better understanding of fandoms. Specifically, we are conducting an exploratory study of being a furry, fantasy engagement, identity formation, wellbeing, assessments of other fan groups, and LGBTQ inclusion in fandoms. We will also as some demographic questions (i.e., age, sexual orientation, education, etc.).
This survey is estimated to take approximately 20 minutes. Participants should be 18+. This study has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.
Click HERE to read the informed consent and to participate!
Klick hier für die Deutsche Version der internationalen Studie der drei Fandoms von Furscience
Study 9: Furscience Summer 2020 Study
Hi there! I’m Dr. Courtney “Nuka” Plante, and I’m hoping you can help out the Furscience team with a psychology study we’re conducting. We are doing an anonymous survey (60 min) about the furry fandom, including questions about relationships, the Covid-19 pandemic, attitudes toward animals, spending habits, and demographic information. This survey is being put online and will be available to furries all over the world.
Participants must be over the age of 18 and self-identify as a furry. Participants are eligible to win a $25 Amazon gift card (draw entries will be confidential and not associated with survey responses).
You can take the survey online HERE
The survey will be open until September 30th 2020
This research has been approved by, and received ethics clearance through, the Bishop’s University’s Research Ethics Board and by a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.
Hello awesome work was nice seeing you at FE
Thanks! Nice seeing you, too!
Dear Dr. Nuka and all the professors of IARP:
Thank you for reading this letter. I am Min from Mainland China. Recently I heard from one of my furry friends, Simone Parker, that the IARP has published the latest survey in 2018. I am not sure if I am suitable to join this survey and/or complete this questionnaire. However, I really wish to do something for this field. Therefore, I am willing to participate in it. It is wonderful for me to receive your informations. Also, I would like to have the address of your surveys, if this is an appropriate request.
Thanks again for your kindness! All the best!
Thank you for the inquiry. Let’s bring Dr Roberts into this. If you don’t hear from her in a bit, please feel free to reach out to her directly.
Happy to see furries being recognized as a legitimate group of people in the great pool of humanity.
Thank you for the quizzes and gathering research on the topic of therianthropy. Hopefully, it’ll help people to better understand it in the future.
Thank you for doing invaluable research on autism and the furry fandom. I strongly believe that this will help provide insights into not just participation in the furry fandom, but also into how those on the autism spectrum try to grapple with social situations in this kind of context. I’m eager to see the results of this survey, as well as Dr. Fein’s finished work on the topic.
Hey, i think that kind of study would be great! i am a furry, sadly with mental disabilities such as a minor case of autism, but i want more people to look at me from a different perspective. people nowadays just make fun of me and my friends for being furries, or even making fun of them for being my friends, i’d love for a survey or something to be taken to try to help us make people reach an understanding we’re not much different than normal people.
Found this website in a news article on CNN yesterday! I’m new to the community.
This is great, and I mean that in every literal way. Furries have such a bad rep in the “real world” and it sucks to see people shamed for who they want to be. It isn’t fair that people outside of the fandom can make all the “mistakes” under the sun, but as soon as some people decide to express themselves, they are deemed highly inappropriate and are labeled as “sex freaks.” Even as there are people in the furry fandom who decide to take part in that, that doesn’t mean the rest of us do. It’s also very unfair for the people who do take part in that stuff to be called freaks when the people of “regular society” do it for drugs or money. My opinion here probably wasn’t wanted/needed, but I felt the need to say thank you for reading this paragraph, and for creating this program. It really can open peoples eyes to the trueness of this fandom, and not the small dark side (which is also in every other fandom out there.)
Thank you for presenting at MFF this year, Dr. Fein. It was a pleasure to meet you and I found your panel very enlightening. I look forward to your future research.
Dear Dr. Roberts & the IARP Research Team:
My name is Raven, and I’m a new furry. I reallyreallyreally love all the work you’ve done, my mind is constantly being blown whenever I discover a new statistic or interesting fact! You’ve opened my eyes, and I plan to use your work to inform other people and perhaps change their views on furries as a whole! With that being said, I would greatly love to take part in your studies. I took the general survey, but since I am not yet 18, and I don’t want to lie about my age, I can’t take the Furscience Summer 2019 online survey! Could you perhaps make your surveys more broad ranging, or else make surveys anyone can participate in? I’d love to take part but I don’t want to break any rules or skew the data!
Thanks!
Thank you, and you’re welcome! Unfortunately, current research ethics guidelines means that we’ll just have to wait until you’re 18 to capture your data. Thank you for spreading the facts and your enthusiasm! The more our work is shared, the more our work is cited, the more influence it has on the media, the better our chances are that we’ll still be around (and funded) to study furries in the future, including you, when you’re finally 18 🙂
After having taken the Autism Survey, I felt at ease, but when taking the Therian/Otherkin Survey? Oof… That one hit close at home! I broke down in tears, answering that one, and it took me over 1 and a half hours, if not 2 hours for that Therian/Otherkin Survey. It was a grueling, time-consuming hell, that I opted-in to participate in, and I wanted to finish such, and have such results published. It was painful to endure such scars from long since past, having opened back up, but for the greater good, of helping others like me, and giving them hope, showing ppl that even though we’re not exactly, human, but an animal of some kind inside a human body, that we are still capable of emotion, still capable of pain, still capable of getting hurt. We may be fragile, but we are not alone, and my survey answers prove just that. Answered honestly, I felt all my worries wash away, and all the pain i suffered and endured, finally being let go. Just typing this and reading my own comment makes me cry tears of joy.
This was a great help to me, and made me more open about myself as a result. Can’t wait to meet you at Alamo City Furry Invasion 2020! I so wanna just give you all a hug for helping me come out, and be proud of myself, for who I am. FurScience? No words can show how much I’m thankful for the surveys you’ve provided. No hugs can show how much pain was just washed away at the end. THANK YOU! <3
Hey fellow researchers!
I remember that some years ago we used to have an (or some?) annual extensive survey for the whole fandom to answer online, but it’s been some time since I last saw people talking about it. Are you folks at IARP planning on doing this online annual extensive survey for 2020? 🙂 It was very nice seeing the result data.
Here on Brazil we had a HUGE (really huge for our numbers) influx of young furries attending cons with their parents, and I think it would be nice for them to get to know about this project ^^
So, yeah! tl;dr, any plans for those extensive online surveys in 2020?
Cheers,
Koush
No plans to announce yet, but any online surveys will be announced here (on this page), and through our various social media accounts @furscience (on Twitter), Furscience’s Official Page on Facebook, Furscience on Instagram, and our Furscience Youtube Channel