• Brony Study Results


    A while back, I plugged a brony research project in the Nightly Roundup.  It sounds like 1300 of you decided to take a shot at it.  The results are pretty interesting! It's a shame we couldn't get all ~500,000 of you to do it though.  I wonder what the face of the entire fandom looks like?

    You can find all of the results, as well as the full writeup here!

    76 comments:

    1. 500,000 bronies would make one hell of a story/documentary.

      ReplyDelete
    2. aw! I remember doing that survey :) I was in Florida XD

      ReplyDelete
    3. 70% of bronies are heterosexual. Just putting that out there.

      ReplyDelete
    4. this is nice. we need more people to do it.

      ReplyDelete
    5. T'was nice. Glad I was able to participate.~

      ReplyDelete
    6. @Bombedrumbum

      Indeed. That is a good statistic you have there sir. Very useful.

      ReplyDelete
    7. I'm not sure how accurate the results are. I think the sexual orientation section specifically was done poorly. There was no clear scale.

      ReplyDelete
    8. Wow, that's some interesting statistics there. Props for the people who made it possible.

      ReplyDelete
    9. >~500,000 of you
      Pics (of Google Analytics) or didn't happen!

      ReplyDelete
    10. Yo Seth, where did you get that 500,000 stat?

      ReplyDelete
    11. Ugh. It's been scientifically verified that I'm old. Not yet among the poor nine "over 40" Bronies called out, but still, I'm not in the other 94% of you.

      I guess it's time for me to adopt Granny Smith as best pony and wait to be put into a home.

      ReplyDelete
    12. There there Harwick. We all love Granny Smith :)
      We'll love you too you old timer.

      ReplyDelete
    13. @Harwick

      just consider yourself lucky to still be open minded for new things at your age, w/e it is :)

      ReplyDelete
    14. Awww didn't see this survey D:
      I would've gladly answered!
      But hey this is good, this shows what the community is and what it isn't

      ReplyDelete
    15. wait, you were studying me? *darts around the room sweeping for spy bugs* Ahha, I found your sneaky devises seth, no more spying on me for you.

      ReplyDelete
    16. I'm 21, male, study at uni and I'm heterosexual. It feels good to be average (although im from Europe, hipster alert!)

      ReplyDelete
    17. 1,300 is a good enough sample for the given population, I think.

      I really wish the team could've given some sort of graphical stats as well as other numbers, but ah well; I'm just used to reading research journals.

      ReplyDelete
    18. i did this survey too :d
      but i would really like to know how many bronies there are in each country ^.^

      ReplyDelete
    19. 70% heterosexuals? Basing on this result I'd say that MLP fandom consists of significantly higher percentage of non-heterosexuals that the rest of society, what shouldn't be such a shocker if we take into account all the fics, music and drawings. Thus, calling MLP a "kinda gay thing" would be justified. I'm hetero myself but it doesn't rly bother me. At least as long I'm not being exposed to graphic mare on mare action :]

      One thing that bothers me about this survey: what's the purpose of researching 10-20 and 20-30 population groups? As for a psychology study, as it was called, it's a grave mistake. It's not a place to explain it in detail but groups like <12,16> and (16,24) and <24, 199> would be much more interesting and... useful. I dare anyone to create a coherent group of 21yo's and 29yo's. It's not even the same functional generation (not sure if it's the proper english translation).

      I'd love to see detailed results of this study. We only got a general teaser.


      PS. The thing I enjoy about brony community is that we are generally smart and at least us, european bronies, are generally above 20 :)

      ReplyDelete
    20. Thank's for this information that we all knew, this totally deserves to be on the front page.

      ReplyDelete
    21. Oh and one last thing. Europe is extremely diverse. Putting the "Europe" category is as silly as those age brackets. Useful cultural groups, at least imo, would be: Western Europe ("the old" EU), Central E. (PL, HUN, CZE etc), Eastern E. (UKR, RUS etc.), Balkans (SRB, CRO, GRE etc.), Scandinavia (including Estonia). Turkey is not inside European culture group and should be studied inside The Middle East while Israel could be put into Western E.

      ReplyDelete
    22. I'm from South America.

      I'm the 2%.

      Sorry, I had to say it.

      ReplyDelete
    23. @HarwickIt's OK brony, I'm there with you. It just means we have to take care of all the wee little colts and fillies and see they don't come to any harm.

      ReplyDelete
    24. @Maquabra Could be that non-heterosexuals are just underrepresented (or under-accounted for, i.e. people that haven't "come out" yet) in society. Unless you have some statistics to support your claim, in which case I'd be interested in reading them.

      ReplyDelete
    25. Awesome :D I was kinda suprised at the 70% heterosexual stat, since the only bronies I know in rl are gay.

      Unrelated note: Rainbow Dash episode tomorrow! 8D

      ReplyDelete
    26. I wish I would have participated but I think I would have just fallen into the norm. 27 y/o heterosexual with some college.

      ReplyDelete
    27. did not know about that, been abit busy with school to participate, must spend more time lurking here.

      ReplyDelete
    28. I didn't notice there was a survey, you should have dedicated a post to it, so the most people could have participate.

      ReplyDelete
    29. 79% male = "Brony is a male thing BUSTED"
      53% under 20 = "Brony is a young thing CONFIRMED"
      ???huh????

      ReplyDelete
    30. @Maquabra On the one hand, looking at it as 70% heterosexual does make it look like the gay/bi level is higher than average, though not overwhelmingly so (and I would imagine that more of the women who answered were straight than the men, so that statistic is probably slightly lower if looking solely at men). However, only 2% identified as gay and 12% as bi, and that is much closer to normal statistics. Not sure exactly what to make of those who chose the other categories, but I'd say that overall the demographics aren't too different from the overall population. Anyway, given the nature of the show I'm not at all shocked that there is at least a slightly higher attraction from the LGBT community (and I believe that 2% is actually lower than the numbers for homosexuals)

      I'm a bit more surprised by the age results really, since I keep hearing that Bronies tend to be between the ages of 15-35, but there are barely any in their late 20s and 30s.

      ReplyDelete
    31. Im 18, in college and heterosexual. I do enjoy polls and research so i'm very impressed with this.

      ReplyDelete
    32. @FluttershyWorshipper That would depend on how you define young. The overwhelming majority are under 30, so I guess that could be considered young.

      ReplyDelete
    33. I think this should be done again, as there are more of us now, and a larger sample size might yield better results.

      ReplyDelete
    34. @Harwick Same here, my fellow thirtysomething. I don't even know what we're doing on the Internet, confangled modern doohickey.

      - - -

      As to the sexual orientation thing, the higher percentage of "nonstandard" orientations doesn't surprise me one bit, since I'm sure a lot of bronies are geeks and, well, the Jargon File's profile of hard-core geeks still stands ("Hackers" in the classical sense: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/sex.html )

      ReplyDelete
    35. Buck yeah, for the power of friendship :D

      ReplyDelete
    36. This was such a good idea. Combine stuff like this with doing good with things such as the Humble Brony Bundle, and we really could make a better name for ourselves. Keep up the good work, bronies.

      ReplyDelete
    37. Heh. I think this study is interesting, but too small and too short to yield scientifically accurate or usable data. The questions are a bit vague as to the results they're gleaning from them (few friends as bronys = negative reaction? wtf?).
      Even so, I'm college educated, over 25, and married and I love MLP, so I dunno where that leaves me as such. I keep getting surprised by people I went to college with who are all straight, educated and over 25 who are also bronys. I'm STRONGLY thinking that we are not that rare out there, and the sample size was predicated by the locations the study was advertised in, the people taking the survey, but most importantly, by the ones who DIDN'T take it.

      tl;dr => Do a bigger and more comprehensive study and come back again.

      ReplyDelete
    38. Missed out aswell on the survey. Oh well, I'm sure another will pop-up or this one will take time to modify its results by releasing the survey again.

      ReplyDelete
    39. I took the survey anyway... Hope it gets counted for the parts that still need to get analyzed

      ReplyDelete
    40. 79% male = "Brony is a male thing BUSTED"

      Also, there are huge swaths of female pony fans who just don't visit ED, like the majority of the MLP Arena. Although most wouldn't describe themselves as "bronies."

      ReplyDelete
    41. I don't remember if I took this test. So many of them turn up in the Nightly Roundups, that they tend to run together after awhile. Anyway, Its good to see the results. I think we won't see a lot of the older bronies. I think they have some things to do in between each Saturdays.

      ReplyDelete
    42. People should get this survey out into the world to show non-bronies that we arent gay, and tell them about the community.

      ReplyDelete
    43. Huh, amazing how unbiased surveys tend to lean toward MLP fans not being as crazy as people would think.

      How about that. ^_^

      ReplyDelete
    44. It surprises me how many gays are offended that we aren't all gay. I think it's hilarious that only 2% of the respondents classified themselves as outright gay, with another 12% being at least attracted to the opposite sex. I think that even goes against the '10% of all people are homosexual' you always hear about in the media.

      [wildly speculative statement]It's official: bronies are statistically less gay than the general populace![/wildly speculative statement]

      ReplyDelete
    45. I think that even goes against the '10% of all people are homosexual' you always hear about in the media.

      That would be a completely reasonable assumption if you didn't know anything about science, logic, or statistics.

      "Hey, 79% of bronies are male . . . I guess that means 50% of the population isn't female after all!" Right.

      ReplyDelete
    46. I'm a 33 year old hetero male and this Brony study makes me feel totally out of place now. I thought the majority of Bronys would be 25-35. Maybe liking this show at my age really is strange thing. I visited one of the forums the other day and everyone there was surprised at how old I was. The oldest member there that anyone could track down was a 31 year old admin. Yikes. Maybe it's time to stop watching....

      ReplyDelete
    47. 28, male, college grad., asexual (ooo, an outlier!). It is surprising that there aren't more 30+ Bronies out there.

      Maybe this has some correlation to being raised with almost constant access to the internet and the absolute glut of other media?

      ReplyDelete
    48. 29 year old male brony with advanced university degree.

      @thriftygamer - don't let your age dictate what you enjoy watching. Watch because you enjoy :). I suspect a lot of older bronies just don't like (or don't have time) to take voluntary surveys, etc.

      ReplyDelete
    49. Awhh. I never saw it. Have to watch for nightly roundups now.

      ReplyDelete
    50. I hit the largest part of the dartboard in the demographic.

      And I'm sorry I didn't get my non-bronie friends to fill out the counterpart survey.

      ReplyDelete
    51. @T-Brony - Well that makes me feel better. Thanks for the encouragement! I didn't see the survey myself because I was busy with work related stuff so that might indeed have something to do with the fact that the 30+'ers didn't show up.

      ReplyDelete
    52. Did not know that the asexual percentage was so high. Never looked onto the subject but always perceived it as being near zero. The more you know.

      Also I'm totally asexual. Is this a pony thing?

      ReplyDelete
    53. I wonder what the definition of Asexual is actually. Someone that doesn't have sex (which could be by choice or not) or someone that doesn't get sexual in any way at all (self) or is just not in the least bit interested in it.

      ReplyDelete
    54. BTW, I am heterosexual but I don't know how to qualify that with "Only really attracted to cartoons and video game characters. Also Furry."

      ReplyDelete
    55. 26 yr old Male college sr, one of the few Bisexuals, and overall I fall into most of the majority (except I'm not entirely secure in the idea of 'coming out' as a brony to the public at large, but that wont stop me from wearing a Rainbow Dash tshirt) Both very suprised and very happy with the results I see ^___^ still amazed at how a show aimed at young girls spawned all this...

      ReplyDelete
    56. I'm 25 (almost 26) male, had some college, married, and have a 2 year old daughter who I inducted into Bronyhood (drives her mommy crazy ;)). While it's nice to see I'm not too far from the "norm" of bronies, it also wouldn't have bothered me in the least if I was on the fringe. I stopped caring what other people thought of me years ago... Then again, I'm also an atheist so I've been used to be somewhat shunned for my beliefs/ideals...

      While I never go down the street yelling that I'm a brony or an atheist, I also never lie if I'm asked or if it comes up in conversation. I learned long ago that lying to others about who you are is more harmful than being ostracized by stupid people. The majority of people will go "Oh, that's interesting" and then file it away under useless facts after maybe asking a question or two... then they go back to judging me on my actions as a person instead of judging me as a label.

      ReplyDelete
    57. If I'd noticed this survey, there would have been 10 over-40's. We'd have made double digits, woo hoo!
      I do know a couple of others around my age, but we aren't as engaged with the fandom as the rest of you seem to be. Might be due to the age difference, might be due to lack of time and energy. Now pass me Granny Smith's walking frame, and get off my lawn! :-)

      ReplyDelete
    58. @Harwick Wow, another over-30's. We're not a small group, I reckon.

      ReplyDelete
    59. @charada13
      Add me too...although I'm not too far from the next bracket up.

      ReplyDelete
    60. I'd like to see some confidence intervals for these percentages. Are these just the sample proportions or are these real estimates of the population? What sort of survey weights were used?

      I agree that some of the later questions are worded rather strangely. Though the factor analysis seems ot have been performed properly. I'll also agree that while EQ may not be a perfect place to collect this kind of data, it's certainly less biased and less costly then any other place I can think of to collect data.

      ReplyDelete
    61. but age is 9233120400429843289538353943902949432392...

      ReplyDelete
    62. this is great stuff; the study is well done and it provides some interesting data. I wish it had boxplots instead of just telling us the percentages though.

      ReplyDelete
    63. @Vermillion Twilight
      I think 10% is a pretty big exaggeration itself. People tend to think that there are more gays than there really are because of the amount of attention it has been given in recent years.

      On another note, I'm not sure I understand women identifying themselves as "bronies". Naturally they're part of the community, but calling them bronies is akin to calling them "dudes" or referring to them as "one of the boys". As a man I'd be pretty irked if a woman called me one of her 'girfriends'.

      ReplyDelete
    64. @Onipolice

      It's a double standard. For the same reason many actresses would prefer to use the term actor instead. People know the term brony and can quickly associate it with the fandom. This works regardless of sex.

      ReplyDelete
    65. Yay I'm average, too. I almost got my dad to take this.

      ReplyDelete
    66. @Vermillion Twilight

      Show me one single "gay" that is offended that the totality of the population isn't homosexual... because I've yet to see it.

      ReplyDelete
    67. Aaaaand, I'm never ignoring the Nightly Round-Up again.

      ReplyDelete
    68. @Vermillion Twilight

      The 10% statistic is supposed to be for both gay and bisexual people. As in, 1 in 10 people is not heterosexual (1 in 10 is gay/les or bi). If you clean up that fact, then the 14% result (12% bi and 2% gay) from this survey makes more sense. It basically means that there are slightly more gay/bi bronies then in the population at large. If you consider many fanfics and fanarts, this makes sense. ;)

      As for the brony/pegasister thing, I'm a 19-year-old lesbian who prefers the term "brony". My 20-year-old straight female friend also prefers the term. I guess it's because it refers to the fandom as a whole, and is 20% cooler than "pegasister" if you ask me. ;)

      Should've partcipated in this survey though...better luck next time!

      ReplyDelete
    69. You sure these researchers are really PhD's:

      "87% of the respondents were male... Being a Brony is a male thing! BUSTED as Not True"

      Sounds like a male thing to me... Maybe my statistician skills are better than theirs.

      Aside from that, I am content with the findings.

      "Not surprising to us, 70% of the Bronies described themselves as being heterosexual."

      Sounds about right. Not being a fanfic reader, I'm only judging based on other original content I've seen and that shipping diagram (THAT DOES NOT BELONG IN MY NON-FANFIC FILTER, SETH), but I see lots of mare-on-mare action and bronies showing infatuation with characters.

      Mare-on-mare or female-on-female content seems pretty normal for straight guys. Perhaps a bit anecdotal, but there's lots of guys into lesbian porn or fantasizing about two girls going at it! So this mare-on-mare fantasizing and shipping seems pretty normal for what straight guys want.

      As far as being "infatuated" goes, I mean there is varying stuff of OC from cute to adults-only. You don't see that kind of "appreciation" for other male characters like say Batman for example. Rule 34 aside, I don't think too many straight guys are exactly making up stories or drawings of themselves getting intimate with Batman. I think because the characters are predominantly female the appreciation is more intimate.

      ReplyDelete
    70. If there was not enough people to produce a good sample of the community this time around, do a re-run of the study if possible. I would love to participate.

      ReplyDelete