Anthony Bogaert

Anthony Francis Bogaert
Born1963 (age 62–63)
EducationUniversity of Western Ontario
Known forResearch into asexuality
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
WorkplacesBrock University
ThesisThe Sexual Media: The Role Of Individual Differences (1993)

Anthony Francis "Tony" Bogaert is a Canadian psychologist, sex researcher, and academic specializing in human sexuality.

Bogaert is known for his research on asexuality and for helping establish asexuality as a subject of empirical academic study.

Education

Bogaert completed his doctoral studies in psychology at the University of Western Ontario, receiving a PhD in 1993. His dissertation examined individual psychological responses to sexual media and variations in sexual behavior.

Academic career

After receiving his PhD, Bogaert did postdoctoral work at the University of Toronto and Queen's University.  He then joined Brock University in Ontario, Canada as a faculty member in Psychology and later held appointments in both the Department of Psychology and the Department of Health Sciences.

Bogaert has taught university courses in human sexuality and psychology for over 35 years.  

Bogaert’s research has focused on human sexuality from psychological, biological, and sociocultural perspectives. He has supervised undergraduate and graduate students and contributed to interdisciplinary scholarship in psychology, sexuality studies, and public health.

Bogaert’s publications have appeared in journals including The Journal of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, Hormones and Behavior,Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Research

Asexuality

Bogaert is most widely recognized for his research concerning asexuality.

In 2004, he published Asexuality: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a National Probability Sample in The Journal of Sex Research. Using a large-scale British population survey, the study estimated that approximately one percent of respondents did not experience sexual attraction to others.

The study is considered one of the earliest large-scale empirical investigations of asexuality and contributed to the recognition of asexuality within academic psychology and sexuality studies.

In subsequent publications, Bogaert argued that asexuality should be understood as a distinct sexual orientation characterized primarily by a lack of sexual attraction rather than celibacy or abstinence.

In 2012, he published Understanding Asexuality, one of the first academic monographs dedicated entirely to the subject. The book examined biological, psychological, and social dimensions of asexuality and is widely cited within sexuality studies scholarship.

Sexual orientation and developmental research

Bogaert has also conducted research on biological and developmental influences associated with sexual orientation. In collaboration with Ray Blanchard, he is known for studies examining the fraternal birth-order effect, which proposes that the probability of male homosexuality increases with the number of older biological brothers.

In collaboration with immunologists and other psychologists, Bogaert’s research has indicated that a prenatal biological mechanism specifically, a maternal immune response to a male specific protein may underlie the fraternal birth order effect related to sexual orientation.

Bogaert has additionally published research on personality traits and sexual orientation, including studies applying the HEXACO personality model to heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual populations.

Other sexuality research

Bogaert was the first to publish work on pedophilia and its link to atypical handedness, suggesting a prenatal origin to pedophilia. This work has been replicated by other scholars, although some recent research has not replicated the original findings.

Along with co-author Lori Brotto, Bogaert developed a model of object of desire perceptions (Object of Desire Self-Consciousness theory). Bogaert and colleagues have shown evidence of gender differences in these perceptions and related sexual scripts, including as they relate to sexual fantasies and language. 

Selected publications

Books

  • Bogaert, Anthony F. (2012-08-09). Understanding Asexuality. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 978-1-4422-0101-9.

Selected articles

Media

Bogaert has had television network appearances on ABC, BBC, CBS, CBC, and CNN and appearances on international radio broadcasts such as NPR and BBC. His research findings have also been summarized in New Scientist, People magazine, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, Time magazine, The New York Times, and the Times of India.

Awards

Bogaert has received a number of research awards, including a theory award from the Society for Scientific Study of Sex (SSSS).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Anthony F. Bogaert, PhD". Brock University. Retrieved 2026-06-12.
  2. ↑ MacKay, Brad (2013-01-10). "Asexuals, the group that Kinsey forgot - University Affairs". University Affairs. Archived from the original on 2026-04-09. Retrieved 2026-06-12.
  3. ↑ "Master & Doctoral Convocations prior to Fall 1998". www.psychology.uwo.ca. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  4. ↑ "Researcher of the month: Tony Bogaert". The Brock News, a news source for Brock University. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  5. 1 2 "Anthony F. Bogaert, PhD". Brock University. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  6. ↑ Dahl, Melissa (10 August 2015). "5 Ways to Better Understand Asexuality". New York Magazine. {{cite web}}: More than one of |publication-date= and |date= specified (help)
  7. ↑ "Study: One in 100 adults asexual". CNN.com. 14 October 2004.
  8. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F. (2004). "Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample". Journal of Sex Research. 41 (3): 279–287. doi:10.1080/00224490409552235. ISSN 0022-4499. PMID 15497056.
  9. ↑ MacKay, Brad (2013-01-10). "Asexuals, the group that Kinsey forgot - University Affairs". University Affairs. Archived from the original on 2026-04-09. Retrieved 2026-06-12.
  10. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F. (2006). "Toward a Conceptual Understanding of Asexuality". Review of General Psychology. 10 (3): 241–250. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.10.3.241. ISSN 1089-2680.
  11. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F. (2015). Understanding asexuality. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-0100-2.
  12. ↑ Telegraph Reporters (13 April 2016). "Half of all straight people carry 'gay gene', research suggests". The Telegraph. {{cite news}}: More than one of |publication-date= and |date= specified (help)
  13. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F.; Skorska, Malvina (2011). "Sexual orientation, fraternal birth order, and the maternal immune hypothesis: a review". Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. 32 (2): 247–254. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2011.02.004. ISSN 1095-6808. PMID 21315103.
  14. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F. (2006-07-11). "Biological versus nonbiological older brothers and men's sexual orientation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103 (28): 10771–10774. doi:10.1073/pnas.0511152103. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1502306. PMID 16807297.
  15. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F.; Skorska, Malvina N.; Wang, Chao; Gabrie, José; MacNeil, Adam J.; Hoffarth, Mark R.; VanderLaan, Doug P.; Zucker, Kenneth J.; Blanchard, Ray (2018-01-09). "Male homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 115 (2): 302–306. doi:10.1073/pnas.1705895114. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 5777026. PMID 29229842.
  16. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F.; Ashton, Michael C.; Lee, Kibeom (2018). "Personality and Sexual Orientation: Extension to Asexuality and the HEXACO Model". Journal of Sex Research. 55 (8): 951–961. doi:10.1080/00224499.2017.1287844. ISSN 1559-8519. PMID 28276935.
  17. ↑ Bogaert, A (2001). "Handedness, criminality, and sexual offending". Neuropsychologia. 39 (5): 465–469. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(00)00134-2.
  18. ↑ Bogaert, Anthony F.; Hernder, Jessie E.; Johnson, Jessica R. (2026-01-01). "Who "Feels Sexy" in the Google Books Corpus? Text-Mining Evidence for Gender Differences in Object of Desire Self-Consciousness". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 55 (1): 393–407. doi:10.1007/s10508-025-03362-5. ISSN 1573-2800.
  19. ↑ "Men with Older Brothers More Likely to be Gay". ABC News. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  20. ↑ "Why demisexuality is as real as any sexual orientation". www.bbc.com. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  21. ↑ "Study Links Gay Men To Older Brothers - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2006-06-26. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  22. ↑ "Younger brothers more likely to be gay: study". CBC.
  23. ↑ "CNN.com - Study: One in 100 adults asexual - Oct 14, 2004". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  24. ↑ "We may know why younger brothers are more likely to be gay". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 2025-08-24. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  25. ↑ Kaletsky, Kim (2015-07-02). "Asexual and Happy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  26. ↑ "Asexuals: The growing community". The Times of India. 2012-08-20. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2026-06-02.