Pornography Use and Psychological Science: A Call for Consideration
Abstract
Pornography use is both ubiquitous and controversial in developed nations. Although research related to pornography use has flourished in topical and special-interest journals for several decades, much of this work has remained in the periphery of mainstream interests. The current article reviews how pornography use is likely relevant to various domains within psychological science, particularly emphasizing its significance in relationship research, adolescent-development research, and clinical science. Specifically, pornography use is likely salient to research examining both sexual and romantic satisfaction. Additionally, it is also likely relevant to understanding adolescent sexual development, particularly among sexual-minority populations. Finally, a large body of research suggests that pornography use may become problematic, either because of excessive use or moral incongruence about such use, illustrating its salience in clinical psychological science. Collectively, the current research related to pornography use suggests that it is of interest to multiple domains in psychological science and that its effects can range from positive to neutral to negative.
In 2019, the world’s largest pornographic1 website—Pornhub.com—boasted of an almost unbelievable 42,000,000,000 individual visitors averaging more than 115,000,000 visits per day (Pornhub, 2019). Notably, these statistics are from one website among thousands that host pornographic materials. Nationally representative surveys of adults in the United States have found that 46% of men and 16% of women viewed online pornography in the past week (Regnerus et al., 2016), and nationally representative surveys of U.S. adolescents have found that 68.4% report exposure to online pornography (Wright et al., 2020). In short, pornography use is a common activity for many adults and adolescents in developed nations, and its popularity rivals other modern technological behaviors (e.g., video-game use).
Surprisingly, despite the frequency of pornography use, mainstream psychological research has largely ignored this behavior. As is the case with many burgeoning research areas, most research on pornography use and its effects has been relegated to topical journals and specialty publication outlets. As of September 2020, a quick search of prominent journals of both the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science (American Psychologist, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, and Perspectives on Psychological Science) found no substantive consideration of pornography use in the past 30 years. This dearth of attention is in contrast to numerous articles in these outlets detailing media trends such as the use of video games, smartphones, online social media, and even virtual reality interfaces. In short, until quite recently, there has been little mainstream attention afforded to the study of pornography use by the field of psychology at large.
The reasons for the lack of mainstream attention to pornography use are not entirely clear. Although there are no studies addressing psychologists’ attitudes toward research regarding pornography use, there is evidence of a general stigma in the social sciences toward sexual science more broadly (Irvine, 2014). Pornography use—despite its ubiquity—is a taboo topic in many circles, which may account for why mainstream psychological scientists have often shied away from studying it. Perhaps more simply, funding agencies have yet to demonstrate any serious interest in supporting research related to pornography use, and high-quality research often requires sustained funding. Even so, despite the absence of attention in mainstream psychology journals, research related to pornography use itself has flourished in specialty journals and in research programs by many scientists across the globe.
A recent systematic review of more than 130 articles related to pornography use and sexual motivation concluded that pornography use is most often a recreational activity engaged in for hedonic reasons (Grubbs, Wright, et al., 2019). In most situations, such pornography use is associated with few to no adverse consequences. However, an emerging body of literature does suggest that pornography use can itself be problematic or predict problematic outcomes for some people under specific circumstances. Accordingly, the present article briefly summarizes three key domains in which pornography use may be relevant to psychological science more broadly, focusing on the spectrum of possible effects, from potentially positive to potentially negative, and the correlates of pornography use. This spectrum approach to the scientific study of pornography use is summarized in Figure 1.
Methodological Note
Before reviewing the domains in which psychological science should more seriously study the use and effects of pornography, we note that several recent works have highlighted methodological limitations in the pornography-related research literature. For example, definitions and measures of pornography have historically been widely variable across studies (for reviews, see Kohut et al., 2020; Marshall & Miller, 2019). Specifically, several researchers have noted that studies on pornography use often rely too heavily on cross-sectional designs in convenience samples, on samples exclusively composed of men, on populations lacking ethnic and racial diversity, and on weak statistical and methodological designs (for reviews, see Grubbs, Wright, et al., 2019; Kohut et al., 2020; Marshall & Miller, 2019). Although a limited number of longitudinal studies and studies that experimentally manipulated pornography use do exist, these designs are relatively uncommon in comparison with cross-sectional studies, and more advanced methods such as ecological momentary assessment or experience sampling have yet to be applied to pornography use (Grubbs, Wright, et al., 2019). In short, the same emphasis on methodological rigor and reform that has characterized much of psychological science in recent years is sorely needed in pornography-related research.
Pornography Use and Romantic Relationships
One area in which much research has emerged regarding pornography use and its effects is relationship science. A body of research now suggests that pornography use is related to the acquisition, activation, and application of sexual scripts (Wright, 2011), strongly supporting the conclusion that people’s beliefs about sexuality and sexual behavior are influenced by sexually related media they consume. Not surprisingly, then, there is a strong body of evidence suggesting that pornography does indeed influence some aspects of relationships.
At present, there is a robust literature linking pornography use to negative relational outcomes. Prior reviews and meta-analyses have shown consistent links between pornography use and lower sexual satisfaction (Wright et al., 2017), greater sexual aggression (Wright et al., 2016), greater sexual objectification, greater levels of infidelity, and greater relationship instability (Grubbs, Wright, et al., 2019). In many cases, these associations are longitudinal, with pornography use at baseline predicting greater levels of problematic outcomes over time. Additionally, at least one experimental study has linked pornography exposure to greater sexual objectification (Wright & Tokunaga, 2015). Despite these findings, there are reasons to be at least somewhat cautious when concluding that pornography must have only negative effects on relationships.
In some cases, links between pornography use and negative couple outcomes (e.g., relational dissatisfaction) are reduced to statistical insignificance once other relevant factors (e.g., solo masturbation, religious prohibitions on pornography) are controlled (Perry, 2020). Similarly, some studies have found contradictory links between pornography use and aggression, calling into question prior positive associations between the two domains (Ferguson & Hartley, 2020). In keeping with our spectrum model of pornography effects, we suggest that links between pornography use and sexual satisfaction can range from positive to negative, depending on the context of the use. For example, pornography may promote greater sexual novelty and variety in couples (Miller et al., 2019). A recent dyadic, daily-diary study of couples found that pornography use in men is associated with less sexual activity in heterosexual relationships but related to more sexual activity in same-sex relationships, suggesting that sexual orientation is likely a very important moderator of pornography effects (Vaillancourt-Morel et al., 2020). Other dyadic studies have found that partnered pornography use in couples is associated with greater sexual closeness between partners (Kohut et al., 2018). Finally, we note that little research (beyond some limited qualitative studies) has examined whether pornography use may predict positive outcomes in relationships (Campbell & Kohut, 2017). A recent review of more than 650 published articles on pornography use and sexual health found a near absence of data on pornography use and sexual education or positive sexual experiences (Litsou et al., 2020), which limits our understanding of possible positive outcomes of pornography use in coupled relationships.
In sum, the relational effects of pornography use are not fully understood, and there are likely important moderators that have not been fully considered. Although there is evidence that pornography use can be longitudinally predictive of negative relational outcomes, it is not clear whether such links are causal in nature, how prevalent such associations are in practical terms, and whether third variables (e.g., sexual orientation, sexual dissatisfaction, sexual misalignment between partners, religious differences between partners) are potential moderators. Additionally, there is not yet enough evidence to conclude whether pornography use may actually be associated with positive relational outcomes, suggesting a need for more research examining the full spectrum of the possible relational effects of pornography use.
Pornography Use in Adolescence
Another domain in which the study of pornography use and its effects has flourished is research on adolescents. This domain of research has likely seen such activity, in part, because of the widespread public concerns about pornography use occurring early in adolescence. Indeed, antipornography advocacy organizations, religious organizations, and even sexual-health organizations have all expressed alarm at the availability of pornography to adolescents in developed nations (Nelson & Rothman, 2020). Much of this alarm is likely due to moral concerns about pornography, which we will discuss later, although it is not entirely obvious whether such alarm is substantiated by research.
A relatively recent systematic review of research on pornography use in adolescents concluded that such use was associated with greater casual sexual behavior, greater sexual objectification of partners, greater risk of sexual aggression, more permissive views of sex, and more stereotypical beliefs about gender roles (Peter & Valkenburg, 2016). In some cases, pornography use in adolescence also seems to be linked to more risky sexual behaviors (Wright et al., 2020). In short, pornography use in adolescence does seem to be linked to concerning attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Even so, it is unclear whether pornography’s effects are universally negative.
Research related to pornography use and adolescent sexual pleasure, health, knowledge, and self-representation is extremely limited (Litsou et al., 2020). This is despite some evidence that adolescents—particularly sexual minorities—may find pornography use to be one of the few activities that is available to them to explore their sexuality in private and nonjudgmental settings (for a review, see Bőthe et al., 2019). Thus, although there are certainly links between pornography use and concerning outcomes in adolescence, it remains undetermined whether such associations are common and whether positive effects might also occur. Again, this is an area in which rigorous and holistic study of the full spectrum of the potential effects of pornography use is likely of value. Given the prevalence of pornography use among adolescents in developed nations, there is certainly no reason that it should not receive the same empirical attention that has characterized recent studies of adolescent use of social media, video games, and even e-cigarettes.
Clinical Concerns About Pornography
Beyond the above domains, there is a growing body of research aimed at illuminating the clinical relevance of pornography use. Various public advocacy groups, religious organizations, activist communities, and even mental health professionals have made claims of pornography’s inherently addictive nature and the growing epidemic of pornography addiction (for a review, see Grubbs, Perry, et al., 2019). Yet there is no consensus in scientific communities as to whether any of these claims are true. Although there is clear evidence that some people report high-frequency use of pornography (Kraus et al., 2016; Kraus & Sweeney, 2019), there is ongoing debate as to what is signified by such patterns of use.
Addiction and dysregulation
Over recent years, there has been much discussion around how to classify high-frequency pornography use. One line of thought suggests that such use of pornography is likely a clinical syndrome that warrants psychiatric diagnosis. Specifically, scholars have proposed classifications such as hypersexual disorder, impulse-control disorder, nonparaphilic compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), and behavioral addiction to describe individuals reporting excessive and problematic pornography use and other compulsive sexual behaviors. Until recently, none of these classifications had been adopted by any major medical organization or included in a diagnostic manual. However, in 2019, the World Health Organization included the novel diagnosis of CSBD in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases. CSBD is described as “a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges, resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour over an extended period (e.g., six months or more) that causes marked distress or impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning” (Kraus et al., 2018, p. 109). With the advent of this new disorder, problematic pornography use may now be grouped with other sexual behaviors meeting diagnostic criteria for CSBD.
Systematic data are lacking regarding the prevalence of CSBD in the population at large. However, there is reason to suspect that it will be commonly encountered in clinical settings. As an example, a recent study of 2,325 U.S. adults found that 8.6% of the representative sample (7.0% of women and 10.3% of men) endorsed clinically relevant levels of distress or impairment associated with concerns controlling sexual feelings, urges, and behaviors (Dickenson et al., 2018). Of note, these data did not specify what sorts of sexual behaviors were problematic for participants. However, data from a nationally representative U.S. sample of 2,075 Internet users showed that approximately half reported past-year use of Internet pornography, and 11% of men and 3% of women reported feeling at least somewhat addicted to pornography (Grubbs, Kraus, & Perry, 2019). Collectively, the above prevalence rates suggest that, at the very least, a substantial subset of the population in the United States is concerned about excessive or compulsive use of pornography. Yet there may be reasons to be cautious in assuming that such high base rates reflect genuine compulsion, dysregulation, or addiction.
In contrast to the above discussion of excessive pornography use and CSBD, some research suggests that high-frequency pornography use is not inherently problematic. There is little research directly linking pornography use to psychological distress, and even less research has examined whether pornography use might be related to positive mental health outcomes. Undoubtedly, some people use pornography more frequently than others, and some individuals report using pornography excessively. Even so, a number of studies have shown that high-frequency use of pornography is not always or even often problematic (Bőthe et al., 2020; Vaillancourt-Morel et al., 2017). People who report problems or impairment associated with pornography use may do so quite independently of the actual frequency or duration of their use (Grubbs, Lee, et al., 2020; Vaillancourt-Morel et al., 2017). Thus, there is evidence that quantity or frequency may not be the only determining factor in whether a person reports feeling dysregulated or out of control in their use of pornography.
Pornography, religion, and morality
As we noted above, pornography use—even at high levels—is most often not problematic. Conversely, for some people, pornography use—even at quite low levels—is robustly associated with self-reports of dysregulation, distress, and addiction (Grubbs, Lee, et al., 2020). A sizable body of literature now suggests that another potential avenue by which pornography use may become problematic is actually more related to interpretations of that use rather than the use itself. Specifically, religious qualms about pornography and moral disapproval of pornography seem to shape self-interpretations of pornography users (Grubbs, Perry, et al., 2019).
In the Western world, conservative religious values are consistently related to moral disapproval of pornography (Grubbs, Perry, et al., 2019). Moreover, in at least some research in non-Western countries, conservative religiousness, particularly Christianity, is associated with greater moral disapproval of pornography use (Fernandez et al., 2017). Not surprisingly, then, religious individuals report using pornography less than nonreligious people (Grubbs, Lee, et al., 2020). However, religious individuals do indeed report using pornography with some regularity, which implies a mismatch of professed beliefs about pornography and actual behaviors (Perry, 2018). This mismatch of beliefs and behaviors gives rise to a phenomenon termed moral incongruence, which refers to the dissonance that arises from pornography use among individuals who morally disapprove of pornography (Grubbs, Perry, et al., 2019).
Importantly, moral incongruence is one of the most robust and consistent predictors of self-reported addiction to pornography. These findings are clear in cross-sectional, nationally representative U.S. samples and longitudinally over a 1-year time period (Grubbs, Kraus, et al., 2020). In short, there is evidence that religiously based moral disapproval of pornography is uniquely predictive of self-reports of addiction to pornography, suggesting that moral incongruence might obfuscate some aspects of the diagnostic process for CSBD. This possibility is not lost on the authors of the CSBD diagnostic criteria, given that they specifically note that moral distress over sexual behavior alone is not sufficient for a diagnosis of CSBD. However, it remains unclear whether clinicians will carefully adhere to these criteria, particularly given that past research has shown that more religious therapists tend to diagnose sexual behavior as addictive behavior (Droubay & Butters, 2020). Further, at present, there is simply no empirical study of the treatment of pornography problems due to moral incongruence. Although limited case studies do exist (Kraus & Sweeney, 2019), no rigorous empirical research has been systematically conducted to study the treatment of pornography-related problems due to moral incongruence.
Finally, we note that these moral objections to pornography use do not appear to be restricted to individual use. The desire to censor or regulate pornography use is also robustly predicted by conservative religiousness (Droubay et al., 2018). More than one third of U.S. states have drafted or passed legislation condemning pornography use as a public health crisis despite the skepticism of public health scholars and the absence of robust evidence for their claims (Nelson & Rothman, 2020). In most of these cases, such legislation has not produced any meaningful policy changes or regulatory action. However, much of the language in these proposals originated in conservative religious-advocacy groups and explicitly positions opposition to pornography as flowing from moral concerns (Nelson & Rothman, 2020). In sum, moral and religious objections to pornography use seem to predict both a greater likelihood of self-reporting addiction to pornography and a greater likelihood of supporting regulatory action against pornography.
Future Considerations
Pornography use is a common and largely normal human behavior in developed nations with unrestricted Internet access. The use of pornography rivals the use of other popular media, yet research into pornography use has been largely ignored by mainstream psychology. This is an unfortunate reality, but it does not have to remain this way. Rather than being thought of as a niche or topical interest, pornography use is likely a behavior that intersects with a plethora of other research domains in psychology more broadly and is likely influencing outcomes already being studied by psychological scientists. Accordingly, the rigorous scientific study of pornography use is an area in need of continued empirical attention from various domains in psychology, which should focus on the spectrum of use behaviors ranging from likely positive effects to likely negative effects.
Moving forward, we recommend a more balanced approach that is characterized by mainstream psychologists recognizing and examining how pornography use is relevant to their domains of research interest. Such engagement might be as simple as researchers regularly accounting for pornography use in ongoing studies (e.g., asking about pornography-use habits in studies of adolescent sexual and relational development or measuring private and partnered pornography use when examining sexual functioning, satisfaction, or performance). However, we also see a need for more rigorous research that intentionally studies the use of pornography itself as an extraordinarily common and uniquely human behavior. That is, although we see a clear need for pornography use to be considered as an important covariate or control in studies of mainstream research topics, we also see a need for rigorous studies of pornography use itself at the highest levels of psychological science.
In the domain of clinical science, we see a clear need for both intervention-related research and addiction science to take seriously the possibility for pornography use as a clinical concern. This point in particular highlights a need for rigorous epidemiological and treatment-focused research related to pornography use, self-reported pornography addiction, and other pornography-related problems (e.g., guilt or shame). As noted above, a growing body of research clearly suggests that pornography use is salient in a range of clinical contexts, yet there is a paucity of controlled clinical studies related to the treatment of problems related to pornography use.
We also see a clear need for funding agencies to support research related to pornography use, particularly as it pertains to individuals seeking treatment for problematic pornography use or other CSBD-related behaviors. As we have demonstrated throughout the present work, pornography use is relevant to domains of scientific inquiry that have historically been supported by a diverse array of funders (adolescent development, relationship science, addiction science). However, to date, funding for studies of pornography use and its concomitant effects has been lacking, resulting in missed opportunities for addressing sexual-health disparities in clinical populations. In the United States, the study of pornography use, similar to the study of many other uses and effects of technology, certainly does not fit within the Research Domain Criteria of the National Institute for Mental Health or within the current priorities of the National Science Foundation. However, this incompatibility speaks less to the validity of pornography use as an area of scientific inquiry and more to the limitations of current funding priorities. Given the widespread nature of pornography use and the clear potential for such use to impact well-being in a variety of domains, it is long past time for funding agencies to prioritize the rigorous scientific study of this behavior, particularly because clinical data suggest that compulsive pornography use often co-occurs with anxiety, depression, and substance use and gambling disorders (Kraus et al., 2015). Further well-funded research is needed to examine the co-occurrence of problematic pornography use and psychiatric mental disorders as it pertains to clinical populations.
Finally, we also encourage scholars already studying pornography to adopt more rigorous methodology such as ecological momentary assessments, longitudinal dyadic studies, and experimental methods. There is also a clear need for psychological researchers to study pornography use among diverse groups, particularly because scholarship is sorely lacking among older women, sexual-minority women, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities. Further, we recommend that researchers should consider conceptualizing pornography use on a continuum ranging from healthy to compulsive, as we have alluded to throughout this work and illustrated in Figure 1. Such an approach would avoid the dichotomy of viewing pornography as good or bad and allow for greater expression of individual differences that naturally occur in groups. Lastly, future research is needed to employ robust research designs (e.g., nationally representative sampling, longitudinal cohort designs) when examining the relationships between pornography use and psychological well-being.
Recommended Reading
Bőthe, B., Tóth-Király, I., Griffiths, M. D., Potenza, M. N., Orosz, G., & Demetrovics, Z. (2021). Are sexual functioning problems associated with frequent pornography use and/or problematic pornography use? Results from a large community survey including males and females. Addictive Behaviors, 112, Article 106603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106603. A large community-sample analysis of both men and women that suggests that frequency of pornography use is unrelated to sexual functioning but that self-perceived problems with such use (e.g., feeling dysregulated) are positively and weakly linked to more sexual-functioning problems.
Burke, K., & Miller-MacPhee, A. (2020). Constructing pornography addiction’s harms in science, news media, and politics. Social Forces, Article soaa035. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa035. A qualitative analysis of publicfacing materials that contrasts the limited evidence for the purported harms of pornography use that are evident in the scientific literature with the widespread public concern about such harms.
Grubbs, J. B., Grant, J. T., Lee, B. N., Hoagland, K. C., Davison, P., Reid, R. C., & Kraus, S. W. (2020). Sexual addiction 25 years on: A systematic and methodological review of empirical literature and an agenda for future research. Clinical Psychology Review, 82, Article 101925. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101925. A systematic review of literature related to compulsive sexual behavior and problematic pornography use that encompasses definitional debates, assessment concerns, and treatment options for these behavior patterns.
Grubbs, J. B., & Perry, S. L. (2019). Moral incongruence and pornography use: A critical review and integration. Journal of Sex Research, 56(1), 29–37. A narrative review and theoretical argument detailing the roles that conservative religiousness and moral incongruence play in predicting self-reported problems associated with pornography.
Perry, S. L. (2020). Pornography and relationship quality: Establishing the dominant pattern by examining pornography use and 31 measures of relationship quality in 30 national surveys. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(4), 1199–1213. An analysis of relationship outcomes and pornography use in 30 nationally representative samples in the United States concluding that pornography use is most often linked to neutral or negative couple outcomes.
ORCID iD
Joshua B. Grubbs https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2642-1351
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article.
1. For the present review, we use the terms pornography and pornographic material to refer to material featuring sexually explicit images of the genital area that are intended to enhance sexual arousal in consumers. This may or may not include sexual activity. This definition is consistent with recent recommendations (Kohut et al., 2020); however, various studies often use different definitions or leave the term undefined.
Transparency
Action Editor: Robert L. Goldstone
Editor: Robert L. Goldstone
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Pornography Use and Psychological Science: A Call for Consideration
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Article first published online: January 15, 2021
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