Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Research has found that therapy is an effective way to treat problematic pornography consumption.
Porn consumption is associated with lower self-esteem.
In a 2016 study, researchers found that 46.9% of respondents reported that, over time, they began watching pornography that had previously disinterested or even disgusted them.
A 2017 poll found that the more porn a man consumes, the more likely he is to be dissatisfied with his penis size. And the same goes for women with male partners— the more porn they consume, the less satisfied they are with their partner’s penis size.
Porn is considered a supernormal stimulus.
Over 46% of young people reported that they saw online porn for the first time when it just “popped up”, and 22% reported that someone else showed it to them when they weren’t expecting it.
Because of desensitization, many porn consumers find themselves consuming more porn, consuming more often, or consuming more extreme forms of pornography.
Of the adolescents who had been exposed to porn, 28% were first exposed by accident, 19% were unexpectedly shown pornography by someone else, and only 19% searched for it intentionally, according to research by the NSPCC.
Research routinely shows that consuming porn is connected to poorer mental health.
Desensitization, or a numbed pleasure response, has been shown to happen in cases of pornography consumption.
Research shows that while feeling guilt can motivate healthy change, feeling shame actually fuels problematic porn habits.
Approximately 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women report consuming porn in the past month, according to a 2020 study.
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