Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Porn consumption is linked to poorer relationship quality.
According to a survey of anonymous child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenders on the dark web, over half report they were first exposed to sexual abuse material of children accidentally, and up to two-thirds were first exposed as children.
Studies consistently show that porn is linked to lower relationship satisfaction and lower relationship quality.
Research has shown that those who don’t consume porn report higher relationship quality—on every measure— than those who viewed pornography alone.
Research suggests that porn can influence women to be more submissive in sexual encounters.
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."
Porn consumption is linked to increased loneliness.
Research has demonstrated that overcoming a pornography habit is absolutely possible, and that over time, pornography’s negative effects can be managed and largely reversed.
Porn consumers tend to be more accepting of cheating.
Research shows that women are almost always the targets of violence or aggression in porn —about 97% of the time.
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.
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.
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