The Kinsey Scale

The Kinsey scale, created by Alfred Kinsey, (known as "the father of the sexual revolution) and founder of the Kinsey Institute, is also also called the Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale. It was designed for, and is used in, research to describe and rate and individual's sexual orientation based on their experiences or their responses at a particular time or stage of life. This scale normally ranges from a score of 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual). The original studies on which this scale is based included 8000 interviews. One of the most original ideas put forth in this study is the idea that sexuality is fluid and not necessarily an "either-or" proposition but that homosexual inclinations of varying intensity can surface and recede at various times in a person's life. The result of this study was originally published in Kinsey's landmark publications of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).