OBJECTIVES: We theorize that sexual arousal by dominance and submission may be connected to a reproduction strategy respecting a reached social dominance rank (a common reproduction strategy in socially living mammals), while the preference for „bondage“ may be derived from an opportunistic strategy when being unable to compete for hierarchic rank (an alternative reproductive strategy that co-occurs frequently with the above-named main strategy). The answers to questions dealing with hierarchy in character should correlate exclusively with sexual arousal connected to any kind of expression of a hierarchy, but not with bondage.