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
Rank | Interest | Sub-Interest |
1 | Animation / Cartoons |
|
2 | Video Games | |
3 | TV / Film |
|
4 | Science Fiction | |
5 | Art | |
6 | Music | |
7 | Tabletop Gaming | |
8 | Athletics / Sports | |
9 | Fantasy | |
10 | Computers/Technology | |
11 | Writing | |
12 | Animals | |
13 | Roleplay / LARPing | |
14 | Science | |
15 | Automobiles | |
16 | Kink / Fetish | |
17 | Books / Reading | |
18 | Crafting | |
19 | Food | |
20 | History |
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
Rank | Film / TV | Music |
1 | Science Fiction | Rock |
2 | Action / Adventure | Metal |
3 | Comedy | Pop |
4 | Fantasy | Electronic |
5 | Horror | Alternative |
6 | Cartoons | Classical |
7 | Drama | EDM |
8 | Anime | Techno / House |
9 | Documentary | Punk |
10 | Suspense / Thriller | Indie |
11 | Mystery | Hip-Hop |
12 | Crime | Folk |
13 | Biography / History | Soundtracks |
14 | Romantic Comedy | Rap |
15 | Comic / Superhero | Jazz |
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.
I was gonna say that one interest/fandom that furries aren’t interested almost at all is history (this includes history games like Civilization and Paradox’s games), but finding it just reaching the top 20 interests (with most likely like 2% interest at most, as 16 [kink/fetish] has less than 5%) doesn’t surprise me either.