Study: Porn Influences, Harms Men's Real-Life Sexual Experiences
A recently released study has found that pornography has a negative influence on the sexual encounters of men.
"Results showed the more pornography a man watches, the more likely he was to use it during sex, request particular pornographic sex acts of his partner, deliberately conjure images of pornography during sex to maintain arousal, and have concerns over his own sexual performance and body image," read the study's abstract. The study was published in the December edition of the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
"Further, higher pornography use was negatively associated with enjoying sexually intimate behaviors with a partner. We conclude that pornography provides a powerful heuristic model which is implicated in men's expectations and behaviors during sexual encounters."
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The study was authored by Chyng Sun of the School of Professional Studies at New York University; Ana Bridges of the Interpersonal Systems Laboratory, Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas; Jennifer Johnason of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Matt Ezzell of the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at James Madison University.
For their sample space, the researchers surveyed 487 male college students in the United States who ranged in age from 18 to 29.
Patrick Trueman, president of the anti-porn organization Morality in Media, said in a statement that this showed how much of a "public health crisis" pornography was in the nation.
"The damaging psychological effects of pornography are now rampant in our society, as this new study indicates," said Trueman.
"We have a public health crisis on our hands caused by widespread pornography consumption, and it is urgent that government and society address it."
Sun et al.'s recently published work is not the only study to have found a link between pornography usage and external behavior.
In June 2013, the Journal of Communication published a paper that analyzed the effects of pornography on young people in Denmark.
Authored by Gert Martin Hald of the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, Neil N. Malamuth of the Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, and Theis Lange of the Department of Biostatistics of the University of Copenhagen, the researchers found connections between porn usage and sexism.
"Results showed that, among men, an increased past pornography consumption was significantly associated with less egalitarian attitudes toward women and more hostile sexism," read the abstract.
"Further, lower agreeableness was found to significantly predict higher sexist attitudes. Significant effects of experimental exposure to pornography were found for hostile sexism among low in agreeableness participants and for benevolent sexism among women."
