Porn: a societal predilection

From Priapus’ plump phallus to Shiva’s singular sexuality, humans have a rich history of fascination with sex. In Classical Antiquity, the Greeks and Romans crafted innumerable erotic vases and sculptures. As you can see from the vase in the photo above, they were not especially prudish! The Japanese, Peruvians, Chinese, and numerous other cultures made erotic artwork, and the Indians produced a helpful sex guide called the Kama Sutra. Today, it is estimated that 12-13% of Americans view pornography regularly (70-80% are men). Despite its cultural ubiquity, pornography is a charged social and political issue in the United States.

Movies like Don Jon highlight societal concerns about pornography‘s effects on sexual norms. The media consistently covers stories about pornography addiction, although the guidelines on mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders specifically excludes a definition or diagnostic critera for sexual or pornography addiction, due to the lack of peer-reviewed evidence for them to fall under the classic definition of addiction: “continued repetition of a behavior… despite adverse consequences”.  However, some worry that viewing pornography leads to brutish sexual behaviors and violence against women.

The current debate raises interesting questions: Is there a scientifically supported relationship between pornography and these behaviors, or is a private, benign behavior being stigmatized by people based on anecdotal evidence and  ‘moral’ concerns?  And more controversially, are there benefits to watching pornography that are masked by how it is depicted in the media?

Scientific literature on porn

Risky sexual behavior

Interpreting the effects of watching pornography on sexual behavior remains difficult. The Generalized Social Survey (GSS), which measures demographic, behavioral, and attitude trends in the USA, has not included questions about pornography since 2004, leaving us without a baseline of data regarding general American attitudes towards pornography. Researchers examining GSS data from 2000-2004 investigated how porn affected contraception use, extramarital affairs, and paying for sex. They found that people who watched more pornography tended to have more sexual partners, more extramarital affairs, and were more likely to pay for sex. The authors suggested that by modeling behaviors, porn may change attitudes towards sex and provide behavioral templates for viewers. However, this study showed no effect on contraceptive use, even though condoms are used sparingly in porn.

Pornography addiction

In another study, investigators provided behavioral management therapy for people who self-reported that pornography use caused difficulty in their “general life functioning”. Following behavioral modification therapy (ACT) treatment, pornography viewing dropped on average 83% (from 1 hour to about 12 minutes per day). The authors commented that pornography can be a compulsion for some individuals, although it should not be stigmatized, and should only be treated if the individual feels that it is interfering with their quality of life.

Violence against women

It is clear that much of mainstream pornography depicts aggressive behavior towards women, such as choking, spanking, and and verbal abuse. A study from 2010 that quantified patterns of sexual behavior in porn found that nearly 90% of scenes contained physical aggressive behavior, with almost all (94%) directed towards women. Other studies correlated male aggressive sexual behavior and likelihood to rape with watching sadomasochistic and rape porn.

Relationship dissatisfaction

Men who watch porn may have less interest in monogamous relationships and more dissatisfaction with their current partners appearance and sexual curiosity. Watching porn may also interfere with their sexual satisfaction (a la Don Jon). In turn, women who watch porn may feel sexually inadequate when comparing themselves to women in porn.

Those results sound pretty grim. It sounds like watching porn could turn Americans into risk taking, women-abusing porn addicts. But is that the whole story?

Are there benefits to pornography usage?

Benefits of watching pornography are less well characterized than the negative effects. While I don’t know all of the reasons why this is the case, I would speculate that it is difficult to get funding to do that sort of research or get it published, especially in the context of American Puritanism. However, there are still many hypotheses about potential benefits of watching porn:

1. On a national scale, increased pornography usage is associated with a decrease in rape and other sexual assaults. Researchers speculated that this was potentially because people are less inclined to act out fantasies when they can see them on screen.
2. It may help long-term couples maintain a sex life that is satisfying to both partners and their respective fantasies by giving them new ideas and keeping their sex life fresh and interesting.
3. Various  groups have continually promoted the idea that there is a ‘right way’ to have sex, claiming that other ways are perverse and immoral. This leaves many people with feelings of guilt, frustration, and sadness associated with their sexuality. Pornography may help people overcome those feelings through the realization that others have the same urges and fantasies.
4. Masturbation, like sex, causes the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters that cause pleasure and decrease stress. Pornography may act as an aid to help people obtain these feelings on a regular basis and maintain a higher level of baseline health.

These hypotheses are appealing and refreshing, especially after all that doom and gloom. Watch porn, respect women, be safer, have better sex, feel less shame, and get healthy! Am I right? Maybe…

Study limitations

The main weakness of all of these studies is that they do not show causality: i.e. that porn causes certain behaviors. Instead, they merely show correlation; people who watch porn are also more likely to engage in such behaviors. For a relationship to be causal, it must follow these criteria (feel free to skip ahead if you already know these):

• Consistently supported by evidence in different populations and in the scientific literature.
• Be sufficiently specific: e.g. watching porn causes violence against women.
• Be consistent temporally (men become violent towards women after watching porn, but not before).
• It should follow a dose-response pattern (people who watch more porn will be more violent against women).
• The relationship should be plausible biologically, and supported by both observational studies (like the ones described above) and laboratory studies (which have not been adequately performed).

Clearly, the studies described above do not fulfill these criteria. The GSS study is cross-sectional; it is unknown whether the risky behaviors preceded watching porn. The addiction study shows that watching porn may be addictive like eating, playing video games gaming, and other behaviors that activate pleasure centers in the brain. This is biologically plausible, but is not supported in the scientific literature or epidemiological studies – how many people who watch porn describe themselves as addicted to it? In that study, the evidence points more to addictive personality types than the intrinsic addictiveness of porn. Indeed, a recent review called for psychologists to specifically avoid pathologizing viewing porn as addiction. The third study accurately describes violence against women in a typical porn scene, but cannot connect those findings to actual behavioral changes. The fourth study correlates watching violent porn to likelihood to rape, but shows no temporal plausibility because it is uncertain whether viewing porn preceded the violent tendencies. I could go on, but you get the general idea!

So… what does this mean?

Despite substantial media coverage, we know pitifully little about how watching pornography actually affects human behavior. Watching pornography is associated with risky sexual behaviors, but there is no evidence that pornography causes risky sexual behavior; people who engage in these types of behaviors may just be more likely to watch pornography. Some people compulsively watch pornography. However, it is unclear how many people do so or how detrimental such behavior can be to the individual or to society. Pornography does frequently portray aggressive behaviors towards women, but whether this actually increases the risk of sexual assaults is unknown. Since the availability of pornography is inversely related to sexual assaults nationwide, it would be helpful to characterize this relationship on a local scale to tease apart what is actually occurring.

Unfortunately, the current political and moral climate makes it unlikely that this sort of research will happen. Consistent sexual activity, including masturbation, is associated with better health outcomes, but the role of pornography in maintaining a healthy sex life is poorly understood.

The debate over porn is reminiscent of cultural battles over violence and video games. While the evidence is inconclusive, opponents of video game violence argue that gamers will mimic the unhealthy behaviors they see, leading to an increase in violent behavior. Proponents argue that video games create a social niche for gamers, improve multi-tasking abilities, and help with hand-eye coordination. These arguments could also hold true for porn (although the social niche might be… different)! Like the violence and video games controversy, the porn debate will probably rage on, since the literature is inconclusive and porn is a ubiquitous cultural staple.

Concluding thoughts

Pornography isn’t going anywhere.This is a huge demand for porn: the estimated annual revenue of the adult entertainment industry is $5 billion. People can use porn responsibly; otherwise much of the 13% of the population (about 30 million Americans) would be debilitated by their porn addiction, which does not appear to be the case.

There is no known causal relationship between viewing pornography and negative sexual behaviors. To me though, pornography is a reflection of American cultural stereotypes and biases. Women are often treated in degrading and unreal ways in pornography, but the way men and women act in pornography mimics our societal stereotypes: Men as dumb, hyper-aggressive galoots and women as beautiful, docile, willing objects of desire. Recognizing these stereotypes and counteracting them is an important job for everyone, including parents, educators, and the media.

There are many conflicting opinions about pornography. While it likely has both negative and positive impacts on society, more work is needed to better understand its effects; study designs that actually probe causality would be a welcome addition to the scientific literature on this subject. At this point though, it seems like porn is best enjoyed like many other things: in moderation.

References:

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• American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. pp. 481, 797–798. ISBN 978-0-89042-555-8.
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• Hedges, Chris. Empire of Illusion. The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. Nation Books. 2009 – print. link