Research gaps

Each gap below is a study that does not exist in the sources opened for this site, written so a researcher could start it. Predictions are stated so a result could fail.

1. Population prevalence of therian identity

Population. A probability sample of adults in at least two languages, not a convention.

Method. One pre-registered item for furry fandom membership, one for having a fursona, one for therian identity, one for otherkin identity, plus a short reality-testing screen (does the person believe their body has physically transformed). Definitions shown in the item text, not assumed.

Prediction. Therian identity is uncommon in the population, far below the 8 to 20 percent range seen inside furry samples. Fursona-only far exceeds therian identity inside the fandom. Physical-transformation belief is rarer still and should not be added into the therian count.

2. A prospective adolescent study

Population. A general cohort at ages 12-14, with consent, followed to 18 and 22. Not a sample recruited for being therian.

Method. Baseline animal role-play, imaginary companions, absorption, autism traits, pet history, media diet, loneliness, and online exposure to identity scripts. Outcomes: fursona, therian identity, otherkin identity, and a distress measure. Qualitative interviews in a nested subsample.

Prediction. Fursona tracks later fandom entry and media diet. Therian identity, if it appears, tracks earlier odd self-experience more than it tracks fandom entry, and it persists more than persona play does. Many early labels fade. The study must be powered to see fading, or it will only "discover" persistence.

3. An embodiment lab for phantom-shift reports

Population. Adults who report phantom shifts, adults with a therian identity and no phantom reports, fursona-only controls, matched on absorption, age, and autism traits.

Method. Rubber-hand and full-body illusion susceptibility; a structured sensation protocol during neutral rest and during a shift-induction the participant already uses; insight checks throughout. Pre-register the difference between "a tail is present" and "my body has become an animal."

Prediction if the body-schema analogy is doing work. Higher illusion susceptibility in the phantom-report group, repeatable modality-specific sensation, insight preserved. A null result retires the analogy as an explanation and leaves the reports as reports. Either result is a success.

4. Affirming versus pathologizing care

Population. Distressed adults who hold a furry or therian identity and are seeking help for mood, anxiety, or social problems. Exclude acute psychosis, which has its own pathway.

Method. Pragmatic comparison of case formulation: identity acknowledged and not targeted, versus identity treated as the pathology. Hold risk management constant. No protocol aims at abolishing a non-distressed identity. Outcomes: alliance, depression and anxiety scores, functioning, concealment, and adverse events, at three and twelve months.

Prediction from Roberts and colleagues (2015) and from minority-stress theory. The affirming formulation improves alliance and does not worsen functioning. It may not, by itself, erase distress that comes from elsewhere. The study is there to find out.

5. Species choice

Population. New furries in their first year, surveyed twice.

Method. Pet history, the species of favorite characters, the species of close friends' fursonas, and the person's own fursona and, separately, any theriotype.

Prediction. For fursonas, media and friends outperform pets. For theriotypes, the lag from friends is weaker if identity is not the same phenomenon as persona. If both are fully predicted by friends, the social-script account gains on the identity side too.

6. The same instrument in four scenes

Population. Local partners in Japan (kemono), China (兽圈), Brazil, and one European country, plus a North American comparison, same items, translated and back-translated.

Method. Fandom identity, fursona, therian, otherkin, stigma, and sexual-motive items kept separate.

Prediction. Species menus and stigma differ by scene. If they do not, platform homogenization is doing more than local culture. This dossier currently has no right to guess which.

7. Register overlap with clinical zoanthropy

Population. Psychiatric services that will add two questions to an intake for a year: self-identified therian or otherkin, and belief in current physical transformation.

Method. Count overlap with psychotic disorders. Blind a diagnostic review to the online-identity words.

Prediction from the distinction used on this site. Physical-transformation belief clusters with psychosis. Self-identified therian identity mostly does not. A large overlap would force the distinction to be revised.

8. Absorption, measured at last

Population. Therians, fursona-only furries, and a non-furry comparison, recruited the same way.

Method. Tellegen absorption, a fantasy-proneness scale, shift frequency, fursona immersion, and identity certainty.

Prediction. Absorption tracks shift reports and immersion. It does not, alone, track whether the person makes an identity claim. If it tracks the claim just as strongly, the "imagination is the whole story" hypothesis gains.

9. Minority stress, measured past concealment

Population. Furries and therians, over-sampling people who are not convention regulars.

Method. An adapted minority-stress inventory, depression, and covariates: autism, gender, sexuality, income.

Prediction. Concealment and expected rejection predict symptoms after those covariates. Identity certainty does not, or predicts them only through stigma.

10. Platform scripts

Population. New accounts on one major fandom platform, opted in.

Method. Baseline unusual experiences, then a year of exposure to identity-script content versus persona-art content, as the platform naturally provides them (a measured exposure, not a manipulation of minors). Outcome: adoption and retention of a species-identity label.

Prediction. Exposure predicts label adoption beyond baseline experience, if scripts create identities. Exposure adds little, if scripts only name identities that were already there. The design cannot ethically push identity content at children. Keep it adult.

What this list refuses

It refuses a study whose aim is to talk a non-distressed person out of a species identity. It refuses any design that sexualizes minors. It refuses a prevalence claim built from a convention hall.