Most women have never mapped their sexual accelerators (what turns you on) and brakes (what shuts you down). But research shows that understanding your brakes is the single most important thing you can do for your desire.
This quiz helps you notice your unique pattern – so you can stop blaming yourself and start working with your nervous system.
More about this quiz
Written by Andrea Leijon, Founder of Temple
Most people picture desire as a single dial: more attraction, more desire; more stress, less desire, one line from off to on. Sex researcher Emily Nagoski's work (popularized in Come As You Are, 2015) reframed it as two separate systems instead – an accelerator that notices arousal cues, and a brake that notices reasons for concern. Knowing that framework in theory is easy. Knowing your own specific mix of accelerators and brakes is harder, and it's exactly what a sexual accelerators and brakes quiz is built to surface. Not a personality label, not a verdict, but a working map of which cues turn your accelerator on and which worries tend to hit your brake first. Everyone has both systems; almost no one has stopped to separate them on purpose. This quiz walks through the specific situations, worries, and cues that tend to separate people into different patterns, so instead of reading about the general concept, you get an answer about your own wiring – grounded in the same research base clinicians and sex therapists use, applied to you specifically rather than to sexuality in general.
Reading about accelerators and brakes is one thing. Answering for yourself is another. Most people can nod along to the idea that arousal works like two separate dials rather than one – but they can't tell you, off the top of their head, which specific cues rev their own accelerator or which specific worries hit their own brake. That's the gap a sexual accelerators and brakes quiz is designed to close: it doesn't just explain the framework, it asks you enough concrete questions that a pattern starts showing up in your own answers, one you likely couldn't have named cold.
A checklist of "common accelerators" and "common brakes" invites you to skim and self-diagnose in the abstract, which is exactly how people end up with a vague, generic answer. A quiz forces something more useful: forced-choice moments where you have to pick between two plausible-sounding options, both of which might apply a little. Those small frictions are where the real signal lives. The Kinsey Institute's Sexual Excitation Scales / Sexual Inhibition Scales (SES/SIS), developed by researchers Erick Janssen and John Bancroft in the early 2000s, were built on the same premise – that people vary considerably in how sensitive their excitation and inhibition systems are, and that this variability only shows up reliably under structured, itemized questioning rather than open self-report.
There is no "good" score on either dial. A sensitive brake isn't a deficiency to fix – it's information about what conditions your system needs before desire shows up at all, a point central to Rosemary Basson's work on responsive desire (early 2000s), which found that for many people arousal follows context and connection rather than preceding it spontaneously. Taking the quiz personally, rather than reading the concept in general, is what lets you locate your own mix: whether your brake tends to fire on stress, on body-image worry, or on relational uncertainty, and whether your accelerator responds more to novelty, to attention, or to feeling desired specifically by one person rather than in the abstract.
As Emily Nagoski put it in Come As You Are (2015): everyone's accelerator and brake are wired differently – the goal isn't a universal setting, it's knowing your own.
That's the frame Temple builds its quizzes around: not a verdict on whether your desire works correctly, but a specific, personal reading of the two systems already running underneath it.
The research in numbers
What you'll discover
Key concepts
Sexual Excitation System (SES) – the accelerator
The neural system that responds to sexually relevant stimuli in the environment – physical, visual, emotional, or contextual cues that signal 'this is a good time for sex'. Varies considerably between individuals in both sensitivity and what specifically activates it.
Sexual Inhibition System (SIS) – the brakes
The neural system that scans for reasons NOT to have sex – threat, risk, distraction, inappropriate context, or emotional unease. Can be overactive (brakes always on) or appropriately calibrated. An overactive SIS explains most cases of persistent low desire more accurately than a weak SES.
Frequently asked questions
What's an example of a 'brake' for desire?
Brakes include anything the nervous system reads as a reason not to have sex: fear of pregnancy, performance anxiety, worry about how your body looks, an argument from yesterday, or chronic stress. These don't have to be logical – the nervous system responds to perceived threats, not actual ones.
How is this different from just having low libido?
Low libido is a symptom. The SES/SIS model explains the mechanism. Two people with identical low libido scores can have completely different root causes – one has a low accelerator, one has an overactive brake. The treatment is completely different depending on which you have.
How do I know if I have a sensitive brake system?
Signs of a sensitive SIS include: desire that disappears the moment something feels slightly off, difficulty staying present during sex, arousal that shuts down with small distractions, a long list of conditions that need to be right before you want sex, and desire that varies dramatically with stress levels. None of these are disorders – they're a biological profile.
Can I reduce my brake sensitivity?
Yes, partially. Brakes can be reduced by systematically removing known triggers (addressing relationship conflict, reducing performance pressure, improving body relationship, managing stress), building safety through nervous system regulation, and reducing shame around the specific things that activate your brakes.
Are some accelerators more common than others?
Research shows the most common accelerators include: feeling desired, novelty, visual/physical stimulation, emotional connection, and feeling safe. But the specific triggers are highly individual – what activates one person's SES may leave another's completely cold. This quiz identifies what genuinely works for yours.
Is a high accelerator sensitivity always good?
Not necessarily. Very high SES sensitivity (very easily aroused) combined with low SIS sensitivity (few brakes) can lead to impulsive sexual behaviour or difficulty exercising judgment around consent. The optimal is a well-calibrated system where both systems are appropriately sensitive to context.
Does the accelerator/brake model apply to men too?
Yes – completely. Men tend toward higher SES sensitivity and lower SIS sensitivity than women on average, which is why male desire patterns appear more spontaneous. But individual variation is large. Many men have very active brake systems that aren't recognised because we don't expect men to have brakes.
What's the most effective way to use this model in a relationship?
Both partners identifying their accelerators and brakes and then sharing that information explicitly. 'My biggest brake is feeling like you're annoyed at me' or 'My biggest accelerator is feeling that you want me specifically' gives your partner actionable information they can't intuit. The model converts vague desire problems into specific, solvable ones.
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Foundation
Temple's first course — build a strong relationship with yourself before anything else.
Explore the course →Based on research by John Bancroft and Erick Janssen at the Kinsey Institute, and popularised by Emily Nagoski in Come As You Are.