Relative Frequency
In order to estimate the relative frequency of fetishes, researchers at the University of Bologna examined 381 internet discussions of fetish groups, in which at least 5,000 people had been participating. Researchers estimated the prevalences of different fetishes based on the following elements:
- (a) the number of discussion groups devoted to a particular fetish
- (b) the number of individuals participating in the groups; and
- (c) the number of messages exchanged.
It was concluded that the most common fetishes were for body parts or for objects usually associated with body parts (33% and 30% respectively). Among those people preferring body parts, feet and toes were preferred by the greatest number, with 47% of those sampled preferring them. Among those people (mostly males) preferring objects related to body parts, footwear (shoes, boots, etc.) was most preferred (64%).
Foot fetishism is the most common form of sexual fetish related to the body.
In August 2006, AOL released a database of the search terms submitted by their subscribers. In ranking only those phrases that included the word "fetish", it was found that the most common search was for feet.
Read more about this topic: Foot Fetishism
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