Nearly six in ten members of Generation Z say they are more than just heterosexual, new research suggests.
The results come from a survey of more than 3,000 people from 71 countries who use the dating app Feeld.
The site is dedicated to “alternative relationship models” such as polyamory and swinging, so it may not reflect the broader population.
But Justin Lehmiller, a social psychologist at Indiana University and lead author of the paper, said it showed how Gen Z has an “openness to exploring more fluid ways of being.”
About 59 percent of Gen Zers said they identified as something other than heterosexual, the survey found.
LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. is growing: 7.6 percent of all American adults now identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual.
Dating apps are hugely popular in the United States. about 30 percent of adults I have used one to find a partner.
Feeld does not report its number of active users, but from 2021 to 2022, the app grew by 65 percent, The New York Times reported and currently has around 72,600 reviews on the app store.
Bumble, a dating app founded the same year, has around 1.6 million ratings, for comparison.
Regardless of popularity, researchers at Kinsey Institute in Indianawho has been studying human sexuality for more than 75 years, focused his data on measuring current sexual preferences.
When surveying their members, they discovered that 59 percent of Gen Z users, those born between 1995 and 2004, report a sexual identity other than heterosexual.
There are 19 other options available on the app, ranging from the familiar, like bisexual and homosexual, to the unfamiliar, like Objectumsexual, the sexual desire for inanimate objects.
That’s a larger number of non-heterosexual people than previous reports have found, the study authors wrote.
For example, a 2023 Gallup poll reported that 22.3 percent of American Gen Zers identified themselves as LGBTQ+.
This discrepancy could be due to the fact that people who already use Feeld are more sexually open than the general population.
Dr Lehmiller said: “What’s also surprising is how, compared to the national average, the Feeld community seems to be much more open to exploring, defining and redefining who they really are.”
This fluidity was also evident in the surveys: 18 percent of 18- to 30-year-olds said they had experienced a change in sexual identity since joining the app.
It seems the app is targeting a user base for just that. The company’s About page says that users include people looking for: “ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, casual sex, kink, swinging, and other alternative relationship models and sexual preferences.”
In addition to dating preferences, 55 percent of Gen Z reported discovering a new trend while using the app, compared to 49 percent of Millennials, 39 percent of Gen X and 33 percent of Baby Boomers.
This is consistent with broader trends in the preferences of younger generations: Dr. Lehmiller’s older research has found that more than half of the younger generation of adults reported having BDSM fantasies.
The report also found that Gen Z was more interested in monogamy and having sex less frequently than Millennials or Gen Xers.
In fact, 81 percent of this age group said they fantasize about having a lifelong partner, even though options like polyamory are becoming more popular overall.