Dr Ross Bartels was recently invited to speak in a symposium on sexual fantasy at the 2016 conference for the International Association for Relationship Research in Toronto, Canada. Other speakers included organiser and relationship researcher Geoff MacDonald (University of Toronto, CAN); relationship and sexual fantasy researcher Gurit Birnbaum (IDC Herzliya, Israel); and personality psychologist Beth Visser (Lakehead University, CAN).

Me at IARR

Ross accepted and went on to give a talk at the conference (on the 22nd July) entitled “A Rich Fantasy Life? The influence of fantasy proneness, dissociation, vividness of visual imagery on males’ aggressive sexual fantasies”.

Based on the findings of the study, Ross highlighted that, in addition to content, we should also address the factors that affect the ability (or process) of sexually fantasising; in this case, one’s imaginal ability.

Each talk in the symposium was extremely interesting, complimented each other, and generated some great questions and comments from the audience. Moreover, the conference was fascinating overall, with some great research being showcased.

To read about some of this research, check out the Twitter feed for the IARR conference using the following hashtag: #IARR2016