What representative, peer‑reviewed surveys have specifically asked about pegging and what did they find?
Executive summary
No large, nationally representative, peer‑reviewed survey appears to have asked Americans specifically whether they "peg"—the academic literature mostly documents small qualitative studies and industry or convenience polls that report varying prevalence estimates (commonly around 10–12% having tried it and a larger share open to it) [1] [2] pegging" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[3] [4].
1. What "pegging" research exists in peer‑reviewed journals — and what it actually is
Peer‑reviewed academic attention to pegging is nascent and primarily qualitative: recent journal articles and conference outputs have interviewed small purposive samples (typically 15–17 participants) to describe meanings, pleasure, and relational impacts of pegging rather than measure population prevalence with representative methods [5] [1] [6]. These studies frame pegging as a practice that can reconfigure gendered power dynamics and deliver relationship benefits such as trust, communication, and mutual pleasure, but they do not claim to estimate how common pegging is across populations [2] [5].
2. Representative, peer‑reviewed surveys — the gap that matters
Major national and international sex surveys rarely, if ever, include an explicit question using the term "pegging"; instead they typically ask broader questions about anal sex or use of sex toys, which obscures whether anal penetration was performed with a strap‑on versus other forms of anal play [3] [7]. In other words, the best‑designed representative instruments in sex research tend not to ask the exact behavior the user is asking about, leaving a persistent evidence gap [3].
3. What non‑representative polls and industry surveys report — common findings and caveats
Convenience samples, industry polls, and media summaries report that roughly one in ten adults who answer questions about pegging have tried it, and substantially larger shares say they would be open to it: for example, an anal‑sex–focused sample of 880 sexually active Americans is cited as reporting about 10.4% of heterosexual adults had tried pegging (astroglyde summary), and industry surveys (Lovehoney and others reported in secondary aggregators) claim figures like 12% of men having tried it and ~46% being open to the idea [3] [4]. These figures are useful signals of interest but must be treated cautiously because they come from non‑representative or commercial samples with potential selection bias and no peer‑reviewed description of sampling margins [3] [4].
4. What the small peer‑reviewed qualitative studies found about experience, not prevalence
The peer‑reviewed qualitative work that exists finds that pegging experiences — among self‑selected participants — are often described as intense, novel, and relationship‑enhancing; authors emphasize pleasure, renegotiated gender roles, and mutual consent as central themes [1] [2] [5]. Those papers explicitly note the limits of their designs for generalization and call for larger, representative surveys to quantify prevalence and correlates [1] [2].
5. Why numbers vary and what agendas shape headlines
Discrepancies between industry/website roundups and academic work reflect different goals: sex‑toy retailers and lifestyle outlets may publish headline‑friendly statistics to signal market demand [4] [8], while academics publish careful qualitative portraits and caveat the lack of representative data [1] [5]. Media pieces that cite convenience polls can inflate perceptions of prevalence if they fail to note sampling limitations; conversely, academic claims about a lack of survey data are sometimes framed as "pegging under‑studied" to justify further scholarship [2] [3].
6. Bottom line and where the evidence would need to improve
There is no clear record in the provided reporting of any large, peer‑reviewed, nationally representative survey that explicitly asked respondents whether they had engaged in pegging; available peer‑reviewed studies are qualitative, small‑N, and not representative, while the numeric prevalence claims (roughly 10–12% tried it; many more open to it) come from industry or convenience surveys and aggregators that are not peer‑reviewed and carry selection biases [1] [5] [3] [4]. To answer prevalence definitively would require adding an explicit pegging item to a probability‑sample national sexual behavior survey and publishing those results in peer‑reviewed outlets — a gap the current literature itself flags [1] [2].