The Need to Bring the Voices of Consumers of Pornography into Public Debates About Genre and its Effects
Year: 2005
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Little research has been conducted asking what range of effects pornography might have on consumers. In the literature it has been assumed that the primary effect will be to create negative attitudes towards women, but this assumption has not been tested. No experimental research has been done on what possible positive effects the consumption of pornography might produce. As a preliminary step in such a project, a survey of 1023 consumers of pornography in Australia asked consumers to specify whether they felt that pornography had had any effect on their attitudes towards sexuality, and to specify that effect. 58.8% of respondents thought pornography had had a very positive or a positive effect on their attitudes towards sexuality; 34.6% felt it had had no effect; and 6.8% thought it had a negative effect or a large negative effect. The main positive effects, in order of reporting, were: making consumers less repressed about sex; making them more open-minded about sex; increasing tolerance of other people’s sexualities; giving pleasure to consumers; providing educational insights; sustaining sexual interest in long-term relationships; making consumers more attentive to a partner's sexual desires; helping consumers find an identity or community; and helping them to talk to their partners about sex. The most common negative effects were that pornography led consumers to objectify people; caused them to have unrealistic sexual expectations; caused relationship problems; caused loss of interest in sex; and led to addiction. Now that these possible positive and negative effects have been identified, further research can be conducted to investigate the extent of these effects for consumers of pornography.
Author: Alan McKee
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1252158710