Technology has moved on in leaps and bounds from the days of blow-up dolls to realistic sex robots, which have been 'built to satisfy'. While a few have made their way onto the market, development continues to improve on what's available.

Along with the vast shifts towards looking realistic, investing in new sex aids has never been easier. For the shy folk who didn't relish the idea of strolling into a store and pulling one down off the shelf, internet shopping has put pay to that awkward encounter.

Boffins have tried to find out who's most likely to buy a sex robot (stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

New research has revealed who would most likely be interested in having sex with robots.

Technology has moved on in leaps and bounds from the days of blow-up dolls to realistic sex robots, which have been 'built to satisfy'. While a few have made their way onto the market, development continues to improve on what's available.

Along with the vast shifts towards looking realistic, investing in new sex aids has never been easier. For the shy folk who didn't relish the idea of strolling into a store and pulling one down off the shelf, internet shopping has put pay to that awkward encounter.

Sex robot technology has moved on in leaps and bounds (stock) (Image: Getty Images)

But who's most likely to invest? Is it a perv-only pursuit, or would easily-embarrassed others take the plunge now they can hide behind a keyboard? Luckily a couple of boffins in Canada sought to find out the answers by probing a number of undergraduates at their disposal.

Connor Leshner and Jessica Johnson put the poser to students to better understand robosexuality – attitudes towards and interest in sexual relations with robots. In their paper, titled "Technically in Love: Individual differences relating to sexual and platonic relationships with robots", they identified several broader attitudes that predicted this interest.

The pair collected data on the three attitudes they believed could be tied into robosexuality. Firstly, sociosexual orientation, which measures people's attitudes towards more monogamous versus more open sexual attitudes.

Researchers selected three groups of people to analyse for the study (stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Secondly, hostile sexism which sees people view gender relations as competitive and full of conflict. Thirdly, there was social dominance orientation which measures a person's desire to support and maintain a ranking of different groups, with some being higher than others.

Contrary to the researchers' belief, it wasn't the people with casual and unrestricted sexual attitudes that were keen on bonking bots. It turned out that people who were higher in hostile sexism were more likely to be interested in sex with robots.

And it was men who tended to be keener on hooking up with their electronic partners. On the flipside women were more likely to just be friends with robots.

People higher in social dominance orientation were also more likely to be interested in sex with robots (stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The study also found that people higher in social dominance orientation were also more likely to be interested in sex with robots. Analysing the findings in Psychology Today, Alexander Danvers reflected that adding sex robots into the mix didn't "meet a need" for those with casual and unrestricted sexual attitudes.

On the people higher in hostile sexism being more likely to have an interest, Danvers wrote that it could be that men tended to have anger and distrust of women, and the robot alternative may be viewed as more trustworthy. He added that it could also be a sexual object to which they would treat with disdain, the same way they already handle women.

Danvers also suggested that those higher in social dominance orientation already saw some groups as less valuable than others and therefore "may already see others as being more like objects to use.

Adding: "So also using a robot as a sex object feels more natural."