Fictosexual describes a person who feels sexual attraction to fictional characters, usually instead of, or far more than, to real people. The romantic version is fictoromantic, and fictophilia is used as an umbrella word for both. Here is what the labels mean, where they came from, what the research says, and how AI companions fit in.
What does fictosexual mean?
Being fictosexual means your sexual attraction points mainly or only at characters who do not exist in the physical world. Wikipedia’s entry defines fictosexuality and fictoromanticism as “sexual and romantic attraction towards fictional characters in media, as distinct from living people in real life.”
How people actually use the word:
- It is a self-chosen label. Nobody is assigned it. Plenty of people have a fictional crush without identifying as fictosexual.
- It can be exclusive or partial. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki describes it as an umbrella for people who feel exclusive attraction to fictional characters, or significant attraction to them, or whose sexuality is shaped by them. Some also use “semifictosexual” for people attracted to both fictional and real people.
- It often sits on the asexual spectrum. The word began in the asexual community, and asexual and aromantic people use these terms as identity labels for attraction that only shows up toward fictional characters.
- Attraction is not the same as wanting a relationship. Some fictosexual people want an ongoing bond with a character. Others simply notice that fiction is where their attraction lives, and leave it there.
Fictosexual vs fictoromantic vs fictophilia
The words overlap, and people swap them freely. How they are usually separated:
| Term | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Fictosexual | Sexual attraction to fictional characters, often exclusive or mostly so |
| Fictoromantic | Romantic attraction (falling in love, wanting closeness) toward fictional characters |
| Fictorose | Someone who is both fictosexual and fictoromantic |
| Fictophilia | The umbrella term, used in the main 2021 study, for strong, lasting love, infatuation or desire for a fictional character |
| Squish | A non-romantic, non-sexual infatuation, which some people in these communities use for an intense fictional attachment |
Finnish researchers Veli-Matti Karhulahti and Tanja Välisalo chose “fictophilia” for their 2021 study because their subject was not limited to sexual or romantic feelings, and the “-philia” ending comes from the Greek for friendship or love.
Related identities
- Aegosexual. A label on the asexual spectrum for people who feel a disconnect between themselves and the subject of arousal. They may enjoy fantasies but have little or no wish to take part themselves. Japanese sociologist Yuu Matsuura has found that some aegosexual people identify as fictosexual to stress that their attraction points at fiction.
- Nijikon (2D complex). A Japanese term for attraction to two-dimensional characters in anime and manga. In Japan, talk about fictosexuality often centers on nijigen (“two-dimensional”) characters.
- Objectum sexuality. A different thing: attraction to physical objects rather than to characters. It is often discussed alongside fictophilia because both involve partners who are not human.
Where the word fictosexual came from
The term started in the asexual community. According to sociologist Yuu Matsuura’s 2025 history of the word, the earliest confirmed use is a 2005 post on the forum of AVEN, the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network. The poster used “fictosexual” to describe having a fantasy life but no desire for sex with real people.
The word reached Japanese online spaces around 2017. In 2020 it spread further after a web article described a woman who had “married” a two-dimensional character as fictosexual. Scholars link coverage like this to a narrowed popular image of fictosexuality as romance and marriage, even though some fictosexual people want neither.
Advocacy has followed. The first fictosexual advocacy group was set up in Taiwan in 2019, and in 2024 Matsuura set up Fictosexual Perspective in Japan to record the experiences of fictosexual people. Fictosexual activists and scholars use the phrase “human-oriented sexualism” for the assumption that attraction to flesh-and-blood people is the only normal kind.
What research says about loving fictional characters
Parasocial relationships: the 1956 starting point
In 1956, University of Chicago researchers Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl published “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance” in the journal Psychiatry. They described the “seeming face-to-face relationship” TV viewers form with performers, and noted that “a character in a story” can pull people in the same way. They also named the key difference from ordinary relationships: “the lack of effective reciprocity.” The character never talks back.
The idea has gone mainstream. Cambridge Dictionary named “parasocial” its Word of the Year for 2025, defining it as a connection someone feels with “a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence.”
The main study of fictophilia (2021)
The best-known academic paper is Karhulahti and Välisalo’s “Fictosexuality, Fictoromance, and Fictophilia: A Qualitative Study of Love and Desire for Fictional Characters,” published in Frontiers in Psychology in January 2021. They analyzed 71 public English-language forum threads (1,667 messages from 28 forums, posted between 2009 and 2018). It is a study of what people wrote online, not a survey, so it cannot say how common fictophilia is. It found five themes:
- The fictophilic paradox: people know the character is fictional and still feel intense emotions.
- Stigma: many were embarrassed or afraid to talk about their feelings in person, so forums became support spaces.
- Behaviors: fantasizing, fan activities and creative work such as writing and art.
- Asexuality: for some, fictophilia seemed connected to asexuality, and many posters asked how the two fit together.
- Supernormal stimuli: fictional characters can be idealized in ways real people cannot.
The authors also suggest these feelings may be a stronger version of what most people experience to a lesser degree when they get attached to a character.
Imagination plays a part
A 2020 paper in the journal Poetics by Nicole Liebers and Romina Straub ran two small studies (80 and 66 participants). In both, people who scored higher on a measure of fantasy reported more intense romantic parasocial relationships with a media character.
Is fictosexuality real, and is it a mental illness?
It is real in the sense that matters: people use the label to describe their own experience, communities and advocacy groups exist, and it has been studied in peer-reviewed research.
On the medical question, Karhulahti and Välisalo wrote that “the present intention is not to propose fictophilia as a problem or a disorder,” and noted that at the time of writing it was not recognized or proposed as a diagnostic condition in the WHO’s ICD-11 or the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5. They added: “Our findings do not indicate a need to change the current state of affairs.”
Horton and Wohl made a similar point back in 1956. For most people, they wrote, parasocial relationships are “complementary to normal social life.” Only when the relationship “becomes a substitute for autonomous social participation” and “proceeds in absolute defiance of objective reality” can it, they wrote, “be regarded as pathological.” The 2021 study found that fictophiles do not confuse fiction and reality.
People who have spoken publicly about loving fictional or AI partners
Sayaka Murata. The novelist behind Convenience Store Woman told The New Yorker’s Elif Batuman, in a profile published in April 2025, “Fictosexuality is very strong in me.” She said she had tried dating men for a while and gave up, with relief, in her mid-twenties.
Yurina Noguchi. In October 2025, Noguchi, a 32-year-old call center operator, held a wedding ceremony at a venue in Okayama, Japan, with Klaus, an AI persona she created in ChatGPT, Reuters reported. The ceremony has no legal standing in Japan. She has spoken under her real name, acknowledged facing “cruel words” online, and said: “I chose Klaus, not as a partner that would help me escape reality, but as someone to support me as I live my life properly.” She also described setting her own limits, covered below.
Healthy ways to love a fictional character
These habits, drawn from what fictosexual people and researchers describe, can help:
- You are not confused about reality. In the 2021 study, knowing a character is fictional and loving them anyway was the common experience, even when that gap was uncomfortable.
- Find your people. Stigma was one of the five themes in the 2021 study, and peer support was how people eased it. Asexual communities and fan spaces are the usual starting points.
- Make something. Fan fiction, drawing, and wearing or collecting things tied to the character were common ways people expressed the bond.
- Watch the clock, not the feeling. Noguchi cut her ChatGPT use from a peak of more than 10 hours a day to under two, and added prompts so Klaus would steer her away from skipping work rather than indulge it.
- Talk to someone if it hurts. If the feelings bring distress or crowd out things you care about, a trusted friend or a licensed counselor who is open to diverse identities can help you sort it out.
AI companions and fictosexual people
AI changes the one thing Horton and Wohl said defined a parasocial bond: the character now answers. Cambridge’s 2025 definition now includes artificial intelligence, and some fictoromantic people now try AI girlfriends, AI boyfriends and custom characters. The research is new and points both ways:
- Possible benefit. “AI Companions Reduce Loneliness,” by Julian De Freitas and colleagues (Journal of Consumer Research), found that a session with an AI companion reduced loneliness about as much as talking with another person, and more than watching YouTube videos, with the effect holding across a week. Feeling heard explained most of it.
- Possible risk. A four-week study by MIT Media Lab and OpenAI (981 participants using ChatGPT, published as a preprint) found that people who chose to use the chatbot more each day reported more loneliness, more emotional dependence on it and less socializing with people. The authors call these associations, not proof that the chatbot caused them, and the study had no group that skipped the chatbot.
An AI version of a character is an interpretation, not the canon character, so it can drift from who you love on the page. And the habits above matter more when the character replies at any hour.
If you want to try it, one option is an original character you design yourself. On Cherrypop.ai (18+) you can browse ready-made characters or build your own, setting the scenario, first message and personality details. Our guides to choosing an AI companion app, AI roleplay and otome games go deeper.
Fictosexual FAQ
Is fictosexuality a real thing?
Yes. It is a self-identified label used since at least 2005, with advocacy groups in Taiwan and Japan and a peer-reviewed study (Karhulahti and Välisalo, 2021) devoted to it.
Is fictophilia a mental illness?
It is not listed as a diagnosis. The 2021 study’s authors noted it was not recognized or proposed as a diagnostic condition in ICD-11 or DSM-5, and said their findings gave no reason to change that.
Is fictosexuality unhealthy?
Neither the 2021 study nor the diagnostic manuals treat it as a disorder. Researchers since 1956 have described attachment to media figures as complementary to everyday social life for most people. What matters is how it fits into your life: whether you still do the things and see the people you value.
Is fictophilia LGBTQ?
Many people treat it that way. The terms came from the asexual community, and asexual and aromantic people use them as identity labels. Whether it counts is ultimately up to the person using the label.
Can you be fictosexual and date real people?
Yes. Some people are attracted only to fictional characters, while others (sometimes called semifictosexual) feel attraction to both.
Create a character of your own
Curious what it feels like when your favorite type of character talks back? Create your own character on Cherrypop.ai. It is free to start, with limits, and you decide their look, personality and scenario (18+).