Fast Facts

(Tylka & Kroon Van Diest, 2015)

Women whose partners consume porn tend to experience more psychological distress, feel more objectified, have poorer body image, and are even more likely to develop eating disorder symptoms.

Citations

Tylka, T. L., & Kroon Van Diest, A. M. (2015). You Looking at Her “Hot” Body May Not be “Cool” for Me: Integrating Male Partners’ Pornography Use into Objectification Theory for Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 39(1), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684314521784

How Porn Can Hurt A Consumer’s Partner

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(Bőthe, Tóth-Király, Bella, Potenza, Demetrovics, & Orosz, 2021)

According to a 2021 study, only 5.94% of porn-consuming respondents said that they watched porn because of a "lack of sexual satisfaction." In other words, the vast majority of porn consumers are watching porn for reasons other than their partner not being "enough."

Citations

Bőthe, B., Tóth-Király, I., Bella, N., Potenza, M. N., Demetrovics, Z., & Orosz, G. (2021). Why do people watch pornography? The motivational basis of pornography use. Psychology of addictive behaviors: Journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 35(2), 172–186. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000603

How Porn Can Hurt A Consumer’s Partner

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(BBFC, 2020)

One study shows that approximately 45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.

Citations

British Board of Film Classification. (2020). Young people, pornography & age-verification. BBFC. Retrieved from https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/research

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(Perry, 2018; Perry & Davis, 2017; Perry & Schleifer, 2018)

Research consistently shows that porn consumers are twice as likely to later experience a divorce or breakup —even after controlling for marital happiness, sexual satisfaction, and other relevant factors.

Citations

Perry, S. L. (2018). Pornography use and marital separation: Evidence from two-wave panel data. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(6), 1869-1880. doi:10.1007/s10508-017-1080-8
Perry, S. L., & Davis, J. T. (2017). Are pornography users more likely to experience a romantic breakup? Evidence from longitudinal data. Sexuality & Culture, 21(4), 1157-1176. doi:10.1007/s12119-017-9444-8
Perry, S. L., & Schleifer, C. (2018). Till porn do us part? A longitudinal examination of pornography use and divorce. 55(3), 284-296. doi:10.1080/00224499.2017.1317709

How Porn Can Negatively Impact Love And Intimacy

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(Wright, Tokunaga, Kraus, & Klann, 2017; Perry, 2020)

Studies consistently show that porn is linked to lower relationship satisfaction and lower relationship quality.

Citations

Wright, P. J., Tokunaga, R. S., Kraus, A., & Klann, E. (2017). Pornography consumption and satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 43(3), 315-343. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12108
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. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01616-7

How Porn Can Negatively Impact Love And Intimacy

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(International Andrology London, 2017)

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.

Citations

International Andrology London. (2017). The porn hypothesis – findings prove porn consumption fuels the desire for penis enlargement surgery in the UK. Retrieved from https://london-andrology.co.uk/news/the-porn-hypothesis-findings-prove-porn-consumption-fuels-the-desire-for-penis-enlargement-surgery-in-the-uk/

How Porn Can Harm Consumers’ Sex Lives

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(Carroll, Busby, Willoughby, & Brown, 2017)

In a study of casually dating adults, zero women reported that their partner consumed pornography daily or every other day. But in reality, 43% of casually dating men in the study reported this level of heavy porn consumption.

Citations

Carroll, J. S., Busby, D. M., Willoughby, B. J., & Brown, C. C. (2017). The porn gap: Differences in men's and women's pornography patterns in couple relationships. 16(2), 146-163. doi:10.1080/15332691.2016.1238796

How Porn Can Hurt A Consumer’s Partner

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(Rothman, Kaczmarsky, Burke, Jansen, & Baughman, 2015)

Findings of a qualitative study indicated that teens often reported trying to copy porn in their own sexual encounters, and that the pressure to imitate porn was often an aspect of unhealthy relationships.

Citations

Rothman, E. F., Kaczmarsky, C., Burke, N., Jansen, E., & Baughman, A. (2015). 'Without Porn … I Wouldn't Know Half the Things I Know Now': A Qualitative Study of Pornography Use Among a Sample of Urban, Low-Income, Black and Hispanic Youth. Journal of sex research, 52(7), 736–746. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2014.960908

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(Sun, Miezan, Lee, & Shim, 2015)

Research has found that those who enjoy extreme porn tend to prefer porn to real-life sex as a way to achieve sexual arousal.

Citations

Sun, C., Miezan, E., Lee, N., & Shim, J. W. (2015). Korean Men’s pornography use, their interest in extreme pornography, and dyadic sexual relationships. International Journal of Sexual Health. 27(1), 16-35. doi:10.1080/19317611.2014.927048

How Porn Can Harm Consumers’ Sex Lives

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(Marston & Lewis, 2014)

Longitudinal, qualitative research has found that young people's narratives surrounding anal sex often encourage coercion, pain, and other risky behaviors, and that they often attribute these narratives to pornography, as it can normalize sexual behaviors and attitudes.

Citations

Marston, C., & Lewis, R. (2014). Anal heterosex among young people and implications for health promotion: a qualitative study in the UK. BMJ open, 4(8), e004996. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-004996

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(Séguin, Rodrigue, & Lavigne, 2018)

Research indicates that only 18.3% of women in popular porn videos (compared to 78% of men) were depicted as reaching climax.

Citations

Séguin, L. J., Rodrigue, C., & Lavigne, J. (2018). Consuming Ecstasy: Representations of Male and Female Orgasm in Mainstream Pornography. Journal of sex research, 55(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1332152

How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

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(Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, & Fincham, 2012; Rasmussen, 2016)

Porn consumers tend to be less committed to their partners.

Citations

Lambert, N. M., Negash, S., Stillman, T. F., Olmstead, S. B., & Fincham, F. D. (2012). A love that doesn't last: Pornography consumption and weakened commitment to one's romantic partner. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 31(4), 410-438. doi:10.1521/jscp.2012.31.4.410
Rasmussen, K. (2016). A historical and empirical review of pornography and romantic relationships: Implications for family researchers. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(2), 173-191. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12141

How Porn Can Negatively Impact Love And Intimacy

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