sexual_orientation alfred kinsey
Alfred Charles Kinsey ( / knzi / ; June 23 , 1894 -- August 25 , 1956 ) was an American biologist , professor of entomology and zoology , and sexologist who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University , now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex , Gender , and Reproduction . He is best known for writing Sexual Behavior in the Human Male ( 1948 ) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female ( 1953 ) , also known as the Kinsey Reports , as well as the Kinsey scale . Kinsey ' s research on human sexuality , foundational to the field of sexology , provoked controversy in the 1940s and 1950s . His work has influenced social and cultural values in the United States , as well as internationally . The Kinsey scale , also called the Heterosexual  Homosexual Rating Scale , is used in research to describe a person ' s sexual orientation based on their experience or response at a given time . The scale typically ranges from 0 , meaning exclusively heterosexual , to 6 , meaning exclusively homosexual . In both the Male and Female volumes of the " Kinsey Reports ", an additional grade , listed as " X ", was used to mean " no socio - sexual contacts or reactions ". The reports were first published in " Sexual Behavior in the Human Male " ( 1948 ) by Alfred Kinsey , Wardell Pomeroy and others , and were also prominent in the complementary work " Sexual Behavior in the Human Female " ( 1953 ). Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction ( or a combination of these ) to persons of the opposite sex or gender , the same sex or gender , or to both sexes or more than one gender . These attractions are generally subsumed under ___MASK54___ , homosexuality , and ___MASK43___ , while asexuality ( the lack of sexual attraction to others ) is sometimes identified as the fourth category .