'A Billion' Kinky Sex Clicks

April 29, 2011— -- Does the thought of entering search terms like "foot fetish," "cheating wives," or even "MILFs," make you feel kinkier than the average person?

You're probably not, say a pair of Boston researchers, who found that some diverse kinky sexual behaviors may be more common than you think.

A pair of independent researchers, Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, analyzed more than a billion Web searches, websites and other sexual media online over two years and found that many people are not revealing what really turns them on.

More men are likely to enjoy visual sexual displays such as video pornography and more women are likely to read about sexual encounters and engage in discussions, they found.

"Just like we have taste cues, we're also born with hard-wired sexual cues, and they differ between men and women," said Ogas.

The type of sex behaviors they found men and women seemed interested in were surprising, he said. More men were interested in porn featuring older women, known as granny porn. Men also were more interested in overweight rather than skinny women.

Women, on the other hand, were more interested in watching and reading about relationships between two men.

They've published their results in their upcoming book, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts."

Ogas and Gaddam have coined their research as one of the largest sex experiments since Alfred Kinsey unveiled his sex behavior research in the 1950s. And many say their findings reveal a new era of the way people literally view their fantasies.

"I believe it gives the public information about something that we sex experts have known for a long time, which is, there's a diversity in people's sexual fantasies," said Dr. Stephen Snyder, a psychiatrist and sex therapist in New York. "The book couldn't have been done without the Internet, and we don't know if the results would've been the same without the Internet. We're truly living in the age of porn."

The research suggests that it's not just a select few who are seeking out what is considered kinky behaviors. However, many people are less likely to admit their fantasies in a face-to-face interview or survey like those conducted by Kinsey.

"This is people's raw, unfiltered urges when no one's looking," Ogas said.

Many people may believe their sexual behaviors are worse or more perverse than the norm, said Benoit Denizet-Lewis, a contributing writer to New York Times Magazine who has been writing about sex for nearly a decade and is a recovering sex addict.

"The sexual behaviors that people talk about and present to their friends and families is, many times, very different than what they really think," said Denizet-Lewis, author of "America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life." "We have a tremendous amount of shame about our sexual behaviors."

But the Internet is a "game-changer" that has provided a form of anonymity to explore without judgment.

"The bar for intensity and novelty has been raised," said Snyder.

Still, Denizet-Lewis said searching out certain sexual behaviors doesn't necessarily mean that it evokes any form of arousal.

"I have searched things on the Internet that I have no sexual interest in, but there's a lot to learn about what people are seeking out," said Denizet-Lewis. "In a lot of ways, it might be a better way to engage in people's curiosities and fantasies than just a questionnaire where someone might feel shame for talking about their fantasies."