Here at Fight The New Drug, we are all about real relationships—encouraging them, strengthening them, and protecting them. They contribute to who we are, and who we will become. Rather than being only an anti-porn movement, we consider ourselves to be a pro-love movement.
Because of what is shown through science and research, we understand that when pornography gets involved in a relationship, it can harm that committed relationship and possibly even permanently damage it.
For example, recently, a huge analysis done by Indiana University and the University of Hawaii shows concrete evidence that consuming pornography can seriously impair males’ satisfaction with their own relationship.
The researchers sought out to answer one question: is pornography consumption correlated with relationship dissatisfaction of the consumer? If you think porn is harmless, you may be surprised.
50,000 individuals from 10 countries studied
They performed a meta-analysis (collecting data from numerous studies done by different researchers to show one particular finding) of 50 different studies involving over 50,000 individuals in 10 different countries. Their findings?
“Pornography consumption was associated with lower interpersonal satisfaction outcomes in cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal surveys, and experiments. Associations between pornography consumption and reduced interpersonal satisfaction outcomes were not moderated by their year of release or their publication status. But analyses by sex indicted significant results for men only.”
Hold up. This is huge news. This is perhaps the most comprehensive study into the effects of pornography, and it shows exactly what we’ve been saying all along. Allow us to explain.
What It Found
This meta-analysis included studies that measured variables such as body confidence, sexual confidence, relationship satisfaction, and personal porn habits. All of these results were analyzed and broken down with complicated statistical methods, and suffice it to say, there were some interesting discoveries.
Related: Does Porn With Your Partner Help Your Relationship In The Long-Run?
The most important conclusion found was that men who consumed pornography while in a relationship experienced significantly lower satisfaction with their significant other. The study defined relationship satisfaction as a combination of several factors: relationship intimacy, romantic attachment, happiness, commitment, love for their partner, and relationship assessment.
So as an overall group, men who consumed pornography scored lower in these factors in general. We know this might seem like a “no-brainer” for some people who have seen this happen in their own relationship, but the fact that researchers were able to measure this, quantify it, and say for certainty that this is true is a huge win for the anti-porn community.
What This Means
Now, that study summary may sound like a lot of fluff and jargon, so let’s simplify it a bit.
Essentially, this study has told us what literally hundreds of personal stories have already made clear: consuming pornography can raise an individual’s standards to unattainable standards, and it can make them less satisfied with the real, genuine love that exists here and now in their reality.
Thanks to plastic surgery, editing, acting, and Photoshop, the performers in porn don’t offer anything close to a realistic picture of what women in real life look like. [1] As a result, people that frequently watch porn are more likely than others to feel poorly about how they look. [2] And after looking at even soft-core porn, consumers have been shown to feel worse about how their partner looks, too. [3] Not very sexy, right?
Related: Why Pornography Prevents Sexual Satisfaction Instead Of Promoting It
The results of this huge meta-analysis directly contradict our porn-saturated society’s view that watching porn can bring couples together by “spicing up their sex lives” and and bringing more intimacy into the bedroom. Day by day, we see that the facts clearly disagree with this long-held belief our culture has had.
When talking about this huge study, one writer so perfectly said,“We were sold the myth that porn would make us master swordsmen. Instead, it’s turning increasing numbers of men in their sexual prime into flops.”
This is what we’ve been saying all along! Porn is unhealthy, and research is constantly proving it.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Relationships are tricky enough on their own without bringing porn into the equation. The last thing any couple would want to do is harm their relationship, but unfortunately, that is exactly what happens when porn stars are invited into the bedroom.
Related: Renowned Relationship Therapists Drs. Julie & John Gottman Release “Open Letter On Porn”
Far from being the relationship booster that society insists it can be, porn instead is proving to be a powerful obstacle in the way of happy and healthy relationships. So if you really want to boost your sex life, kick porn to the curb and choose each other over an unrealistic fantasy. Fight to choose real love and real relational intimacy, instead of its faulty counterfeits.
