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Pornography's Immediate Effect on Relationship Satisfaction Pornography’s Immediate Effect on Relationship Satisfaction Mary E. Butler, F. Richard Ferraro*, and Jeffery E. Holm* University of North Dakota ABSTRACT. There is a persistent belief that viewing pornography has a wide range of negative consequences, but recent research has also indicated positive effects. The purpose of this experiment was to study the immediate effect of pornography on relationship satisfaction. The experimenters randomly assigned participants (N = 98) to one of three groups: Group 1 viewed neutral images of people, Group 2 viewed pornographic images, and Group 3 viewed images of scenery. Immediately after viewing the images, participants answered questions about their relationship and sexual satisfaction. In general, results indicated that participant responses did not differ among the three groups for either relationship or sexual satisfaction; however, an interaction existed in the sexual satisfaction subscales between gender and group assignment. Men and women indicated sexual dissatisfaction on different subscales depending on their group assignment. The results also indicated gender differences among pornography viewing and sexual satisfaction responses. umans have long been preoccupied with the extremes of sexual experimentation and strict sex, nude images, and sexuality. Long regulation of sexual practices exist at the same time, Hbefore the invention of writing, there especially in America. were cave drawings and primitive sculptures of In many ways, American society is sexually sexual acts or reproductive body parts (Lo Duca, restrictive and narrow-minded. The prude stigma of 1966). As technology advanced, so did the ways to America exists because there are strict laws regulat- create pornography. Greek artists began to focus ing promiscuity in America and sexually reserved on the nude human body. As soon as the camera cultural practices. For example, nude beaches are was invented, there were pictures taken of naked rare and have age limits, much of the media must men and women engaging in sexual acts. The comply with censorship rules, and abstinence human fascination with erotica has not changed. More recently, the term sex was the most frequently is still a widely used form of sexual education. searched word on the Internet (“‘Sex’ is the most Viewing America as sexually restrictive is ironic searched term on the web,” 2002). However, society’s because America is the number one producer opinion on the acceptability of viewing pornography of pornographic videos and websites (Ropelato, 2011). Also, an estimated 40 million Americans view has changed over time. Some extreme examples of FALL 2011 society’s change in opinion are the licentious days pornography on a regular basis (Ropelato, 2011). of the Greeks and Romans and the prudish days It seems that America as a community is divided in PSI CHI JOURNAL OF of the Victorian Period. Recently, it appears that its beliefs about the acceptability of pornography. UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH *Faculty mentor COPYRIGHT 2011 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 16, NO. 3/ISSN 1089-4136) 113 Pornography’s Effect on Relationship Satisfaction | Butler, Ferraro, and Holm Defining Pornography amount of degradation and aggression associated The Attorney General’s Commission on Por- with pornography. Although attitudes supporting nography defined pornography as “material rape and other sexually aggressive behavior are predominantly sexually explicit and intended for associated with pornography, they are equally purposes of sexual arousal” (1986, pp. 228-229). associated with degrading material that does not The Attorney General’s definition is not often used include nudity (Golde, Strassber, Turner, & Lowe, in research because it lacks clarity. For example, it 2000). Therefore, it is necessary to determine the is arguable that many advertisements are aimed at extent to which pornography and aggression/ sexual arousal by using provocative images to sell degradation occur together in the environment. products; however, sexually appealing advertise- Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, and Liberman ments are generally not considered pornography. (2010) examined 304 scenes from popular explicit Because of the ambiguity of the definition pro- adult videos. Results indicated that 88% of the vided by the Attorney General’s Commission, most scenes contained physical aggression. The most experimenters individually define pornography. common forms of aggression were spanking, gag- The variety of definitions has left a divide among ging, and slapping. In addition, 49% of the scenes researchers. Although one researcher may allow contained verbal aggression, mainly name-calling. participants to construct their own definitions of The frequent co-occurrence of pornography and pornography (Benjamin & Tlusten, 2010), another aggression/degrading material may explain why researcher may strictly define the difference previous researchers have focused on the negative between erotic images and pornography (Senn & consequences of pornography viewing. Desmarais, 2004). One such negative consequence frequently The definition of pornography is often skewed cited is the link between pornography use and par- by the predicted outcome of the research. For ticipants’ aggressive attitudes (Golde et al., 2000; example, Senn and Desmarais (2004) distinguished Malamuth, Addison, & Koss, 2000) and actions between nonviolent degrading pornography and (Simmons, Lehmann, & Collier-Tension, 2008). violent degrading pornography. Narrowing the Researchers found an increase in sexually aggres- definition of pornography in this manner restricted sive attitudes and behaviors followed pornography pornography to degrading versions and did not exposure. The more violent the pornography, the include the nondegrading pornography options. more negative attitudes participants exhibited. “Degradation” is often used as a criterion to dis- Similarly, the more pornography individuals tinguish differences among types of pornography. reported viewing, the higher their sexual aggres- Degradation describes belittling or humiliating sion levels were (Malamuth et al., 2000). After behavior during a sexual act, such as name-calling degrading pornography exposure, men reported or domination of the sexual partner. Senn and beliefs that sex with women creates masculine Demaris’s findings indicated that all pornography domination and female submission (Golde et al., is harmful. The narrow definition of pornography 2000). The previous research shows a strong link used by these researchers may explain why they between aggressive beliefs and pornography, but found all pornography to be harmful. not necessarily aggressive actions. Conversely, some researchers avoid defining Simmons et al. (2008) found links between pornography explicitly and instead use question- pornography and aggressive behaviors through naires that ask about specific behaviors (e.g., how questionnaires completed by women from interper- often the participant has seen oral sex on the sonal violence shelters. Their results indicated that Internet; Morrison, Harriman, Morrison, Bearden, the degree of controlling behavior demonstrated by & Ellis, 2004). The definition of pornography used the batterer correlated positively with the amount in the current study was images containing nudity of pornography used. Although this research (i.e., exposing a breast or visible genitalia of either indicates aggressive behavior may be linked with men or women). The definition applied only to pornography, it is not clear if there is a third vari- images chosen for the pornographic image group. able mediating the connection, such as personality. Individual differences, such as low intelligence and FALL 2011 Negative Influence of Pornography high aggressive antisocial tendencies, may account One of the many problems associated with studying for a personal preference of violent pornography PSI CHI JOURNAL OF pornography’s effects is eliminating confounding (Bogaert, 2001). UNDERGRADUATE variables. Commonly discussed variables are the Aggressive beliefs and behaviors are not the RESEARCH 114 COPYRIGHT 2011 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 16, NO. 3/ISSN 1089-4136) Butler, Ferraro, and Holm | Pornography’s Effect on Relationship Satisfaction only negative side effects associated with pornogra- exposure are not associated with high levels of phy viewing. Hald and Malamuth (2008) found that sexual aggression in the majority of American participants reported pornography use affected men (Malamuth et al., 2000). This finding may not different types of self-esteem. Male and female par- be positive, but it does suggest that pornography ticipants believed that their pornography consump- does not necessarily have a negative impact on its tion negatively impacted their sexual knowledge, viewers. attitudes toward sex, perceptions of the opposite Likewise, exposure to pornography was posi- sex, general quality of life, and sex life. Also, men’s tively correlated with sexual esteem for both male satisfaction with their penis and sexual esteem and female participants (Morrison et al., 2004). (i.e., how valuable they rated themselves as a sex Both sexes also reported levels of pornography partner) was inversely correlated with the amount exposure that were inversely correlated with sexual of pornography they had viewed (Morrison, Ellis, anxiety, indicating that the more pornography Morrison, Bearden, & Harriman, 2006). viewed, the less anxiety
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