Kinsey Scale Test
The classic 0-6 scale — modernized, anonymous, and built to be honest.
The Kinsey Scale, briefly
In 1948, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, and with it the scale that bears his name. It was the first mainstream framework to say what queer people had been saying for centuries: sexuality is not a clean binary. Most people fall somewhere on a spectrum.
The scale runs from 0 to 6:
- 0 — Exclusively heterosexual
- 1 — Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
- 2 — Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
- 3 — Equally heterosexual and homosexual
- 4 — Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
- 5 — Predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual
- 6 — Exclusively homosexual
- X — No socio-sexual contacts or reactions (asexual, in modern terms)
Kinsey’s surveys found that most people are not 0 or 6. Most fall in the middle somewhere — even in 1948, when admitting it was much harder than it is today.
How accurate is the Kinsey Scale today?
The scale was groundbreaking in 1948 and remains useful as a rough framework. It’s also been heavily criticized, and modern researchers have moved beyond it for a few reasons:
- It only captures one axis (gay/straight) and ignores attractions to non-binary people, trans people, or attractions where gender isn’t the relevant variable.
- It conflates behavior with attraction. Someone who’s never acted on their attractions is still queer.
- It doesn’t distinguish between sexual and romantic attraction (you can be on opposite ends of those scales).
- It treats asexuality as an exception (“X”) rather than an integrated part of the model.
Use the result as a rough self-snapshot, not a permanent label. Many people land on different Kinsey numbers in different decades of their lives.
Updated framing for our test
This isn’t your grandmother’s Kinsey scale. We’ve kept the original 0-6 structure but rewritten the underlying questions to:
- Cover attraction, fantasy, and emotional pull — not just behavior
- Include asexual placement explicitly
- Account for non-binary attraction in scoring
- Skip the awkward 1940s language
You’ll get a Kinsey number plus a short, honest description of what it typically means.
What to do with your number
A Kinsey 0 doesn’t mean you’re never allowed to be curious. A Kinsey 6 doesn’t mean you have to come out tomorrow. A Kinsey 3 doesn’t mean you have to date 50/50 the rest of your life. The number is a snapshot of your current self-report — not a sentence.
If your number surprised you, the most useful thing is to ask: which questions caused the surprise? That’s where the real signal is.
Related quizzes
- Am I Gay? quiz — 6 territory
- Am I Lesbian? quiz — 6, specifically for women
- Am I Bi? quiz — 2-4 territory
- Am I Pansexual? quiz — when the scale itself feels too small
- Am I Asexual? quiz — X territory
- Am I Straight? quiz — 0-1 territory
Frequently asked
What is the Kinsey Scale?
It's a 7-point scale published by Alfred Kinsey in 1948 that placed people from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), with everything in between. It was the first widely-used framework to argue that sexuality is a spectrum, not a binary.
Is the Kinsey Scale still considered accurate?
It's been useful but criticized. Modern sexuality research considers the scale a simplification — it only captures the gay/straight axis and ignores asexuality, the difference between attraction and behavior, and identities like bi, pan, and queer that don't sit cleanly on one line. Treat the result as a rough placement, not a definitive answer.
What does 'X' mean on the Kinsey Scale?
Kinsey himself added an 'X' category for people who experienced no sexual response to either gender — what we'd now call asexual. Our quiz includes this as a possible outcome.
Will the test save my answers?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent.