Objectophilia

Object-sexual individuals have a variety of different experiences based on who they are. Some see the objects that they are attracted to as having a gender, and within that category of people, the object's gender can be interpreted either by what the object means to them or by some other means. Other things that differ between individuals are relationship styles, which can be monogamous or polyamorous, communication styles with the objects, and intimacy challenges based on the distance between the person and the object.

Research

In 2009, Amy Marsh, a clinical sexologist, surveyed the twenty-one English-speaking members of Erika Eiffel's 40-member OS Internationale group about their experiences. About half reported autism spectrum disorders: six had been diagnosed, four were affected but not diagnosed, and three of the remaining nine reported having "some traits." According to Marsh, "The emotions and experiences reported by OS people correspond to general definitions of sexual orientation," such as that in an APA article "on sexual orientation and homosexuality ... [which] refers to sexual orientation as involving 'feelings and self-concept'".

The first empirical behavioural study was conducted in 2019 by neuropsychologist Julia Simner and her colleagues. Their data suggests that objectophilia is likely to arise when two separate neurodevelopmental traits co-occur: autism and synaesthesia. Rates of diagnosed autism were up to 30 times higher in their objectophile group, particularly linked to differences in social skills (finding human social situations unenjoyable). At the same time, the objectophile group were 14 times more likely to have synaesthesia. This included the variant known as personification synaesthesia, which makes inanimate objects feel imbued with personalities or genders (due to neurodevelopmental differences in regions of the brain involved in social processing). The researchers concluded that OS often encapsulates autism and synaesthesia within its phenomenology, and they also discussed society's marginalization of objectophiles.

Sociolinguistic researcher Heiko Motschenbacher has developed the concept of humanonormativity to describe the marginalization of objectum sexuality. Humanonormativity is "the belief that people normally and naturally engage in sexual practices and romantic relationships with other human beings." It arises as a discourse that pathologizes objectum sexuality. This concept has been referenced in relevant academic fields, including research on fictosexuality.