Questioning Pornography

Within the field of pornography research, longitudinal data is arguably the most robust evidence one can get for causation. The paper highlighted in today's episode is a review of various longitudinal studies which examine the impact pornography consumption has on adolescents. 

I was so grateful to chat with Dr. Mateusz Gola, leading expert on the neuroscience of problematic pornography use. I was able to ask some burning questions, correct my previous misunderstandings of the research, and have some laughs! 

Christopher Bueker discusses how parents can help their children recover from pornography addiction, authoritative vs. authoritarian parenting, signs that a child is addicted to pornography, what makes an individual susceptible to addiction, and more.
Further Resources: 

What does the overall body of research have to say on how porn affects sexual and relationship satisfaction? What about body satisfaction and self-esteem? Are the answers to these questions different for men and women? This meta-analysis explores these questions!

Study highlighted: 

Mary Sharpe, the CEO of the Reward Foundation, speaks to the effect of pornography on people with autism, increasing consumption of child sexual abuse material (aka. child pornography), and increasing rates of sexual strangulation and "rough sex gone wrong".

Sources for further learning: 

The number of female porn consumers is on the rise, and it's important to understand any gender differences that might exist when it comes to pornography's impact on consumers. In this research highlight episode, I cover a study which looks at how pornography impacts female consumers in the domains of body dissatisfaction, attitudes towards sexual violence, sexist attitudes, and sexual behaviours.

In this episode I speak with Dr. John Foubert, leading expert on the intersection between Pornography & Sexual Violence. I was grateful for the opportunity to ask him some of the trickier questions on this issue that I've been wrestling with for a while. We discuss such questions as: 

• Can pornography actually decrease rape rates, by providing a mechanism for the release of sexual tension? 
• Is there really a difference between using people in pornography as tools/commodities to serve our own sexual pleasure vs. using people as tools/commodities to serve our own purposes in other types of commercial exchanges? 
• Are there nuances to acknowledge when it comes to what types of acts in pornography should be considered "violent"? 
• Why do different studies assessing the rates of violence in pornography get such different results? 

This 2021 study conducts a qualitative analysis of abstinence journals kept by members of Reboot Nation, a recovery forum for problematic porn use. It explores the various negative effects members attributed to their porn use, which consequently motivated them to try to quit porn, and what the experience of trying to quit was like.  

In this episode I highlight a longitudinal study which finds that pornography consumption can lead to more positive attitudes towards extramarital sex (ie. being married and thinking it's okay to have sex with someone other than your spouse). This longitudinal study explicitly tests whether the causal direction runs from porn consumption --> the attitudes or from the attitudes --> porn consumption, and finds strong evidence for the former.

If you have not already listened to these past 2 research highlight episodes, I highly recommend you do so first, as they will provide you with important background knowledge for understanding this study: 

I'm delighted to share this conversation with my friend Alexander, the person who caused this podcast to come into existence. Alexander speaks to how pornography affected his mentality towards women and relationships, and how he noticed radical and "beautiful" improvements since quitting pornography and masturbation.

Francesca Palazzolo is the author of a study I highlighted in a previous research episode, which explores the various negative effects that problematic users of internet pornography can experience. She is also an addiction counsellor and psychotherapist who has front-lines experience working with clients who struggle with porn addiction. In our conversation, we discuss such questions as: the controversy over the word "addiction", the popular trend of citing a single study to "debunk porn addiction" and the flaws in that study, taking a holistic approach in addiction counselling, and more.

Further resources/links of interest:

It's the classic question of what came first, the chicken or the egg? Do people with certain beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours gravitate towards viewing pornography, or does viewing pornography influence the development of those beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours? In this episode, I highlight a Letter by Dr. Paul Wright in which he explains what the research has to say on this topic 

Paul Lavergne, registered psychotherapist specializing in compulsive sexual behaviours, shares his insights from working with clients who struggle with compulsive pornography use. In addition to discussing the negative impact compulsive pornography consumption has on his clients' lives, Paul speaks to the negative impact it has on their romantic partners. 

If any of our listeners wish to seek therapy with Paul, his information is as follows: 

In this episode we highlight a Letter by Dr. Paul Wright in which he explains a tendency amongst pornography researchers to over-control for 3rd variables, and how this leads to skewed results. 

Letter Highlighted: 

This recently published study finds an association between pornography consumption, dehumanizing views of women, and sexually aggressive attitudes and behaviours. It explains two different types of dehumanization -- mechanistic and animalistic -- and how each mediate the relationship with sexually aggressive attitudes and behaviours differently.

Study highlighted: 

This week I was so pleased to interview Gabe Deem, the founder of Reboot Nation, an online community and educational platform for porn addicts and their partners. Gabe shares his own story of suffering from severe porn-induced erectile dysfunction, and talks about how that motivated him to learn about the neuroscience behind porn's harms, and eventually educate many others on the topic.

In the study we highlight this week, participants report on the various negative effects that they believe porn has had on their lives. Examples include decreased mental health, negative effects on intimacy and relationships, porn-induced erectile dysfunction, and symptoms of addiction. 

Study highlighted (free draft version):

In this episode I speak with social worker Aaron Kennell on how he's seen pornography inhibit healthy relationships and influence Domestic Violence. 

A plethora of research indicates that internet pornography use can often cause sexual dysfunctions in young men, as their sexual arousal response becomes conditioned to porn rather than to partnered sex. This episode is a brief summary of some key research papers on porn-induced sexual dysfunction.

Dr. YanYan Zhou discusses her recent dissertation: “The Mixed Effects of Sexual Explicitness and Violence Severity on Viewers’ Emotion, Memory, and Attitudes towards Sex and Violence”. She explains how people’s brains respond to viewing varying degrees of violence and sexual explicitness in pornography, and how this may mediate the influence pornography has in people developing violent attitudes or behaviours.

Gary Wilson, a key leader in educating people about pornography’s harms, passed away recently on May 20th, 2021. Alexander and I decided to record a brief tribute, where we discuss Gary Wilson’s work and the impact it had on us.

If you have not yet explored Gary Wilson's work, we highly recommend you do so:

Last episode we spoke about some of the negative effects that pornography can have on kids. In this episode, we explore one part of a potential solution to that problem: implementing Age Verification legislation for online pornography. We interview Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne and Murray Perkins, two leading experts on the issue of Age Verification. Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne recently proposed a bill in Canada which would legally require pornography websites to verify the age of all their users, therefore protecting kids from being exposed to pornographic contact. Murray Perkins served as a key consultant for Age Verification legislation in the UK.