Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
People who use porn as a self-soothing technique tend to have some of the lowest reports of emotional and mental wellbeing according to a 2017 study.
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.
Desensitization, or a numbed pleasure response, has been shown to happen in cases of pornography consumption.
In one survey of underage sex trafficking victims, 63% said they had been advertised or sold online.
Nearly half of porn scenes (48.7%) contained verbal aggression, according to a study of popular porn videos.
Research suggests that frequent porn consumers are less likely to intervene during a sexual assault.
Qualitative research with current and former porn performers suggests that sexual exploitation and trafficking are common experiences in the porn industry.
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.
Qualitative research reveals that young women often feel pressured to play out the “scripts” their male partners had learned from porn —they feel badgered into having sex in uncomfortable positions, faking sexual responses, and consenting to unpleasant or painful acts.
Research shows that while feeling guilt can motivate healthy change, feeling shame actually fuels problematic porn habits.
The Internet Watch Foundation recently reported that during 2020, approximately 44% of all child sexual abuse material reported to the IWF involved self-generated material. That’s a 16% increase from 2019 when only a third of reports involved self-generated imagery.
Research suggests that pornography can make young people more sexually illiterate —in other words, it’s actively spreading harmful misinformation about sex.
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