What Motives Drive Pornography Use?

Pornography use has become widespread and mainstream in American society, with estimates that 60% of men and 35% of women have viewed pornography at some time in the last year. Pornography use has been associated with both positive and negative outcomes depending on the user, and some of these confl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Family journal (Alexandria, Va.) Va.), 2021-04, Vol.29 (2), p.161-174
Main Authors: Esplin, Charlotte R., Hatch, S. Gabe, Hatch, H. Dorian, Deichman, Conner L., Braithwaite, Scott R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Arousal
Emotions
Measurement
Pornography
Pornography & obscenity
Sadness
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pornography use has become widespread and mainstream in American society, with estimates that 60% of men and 35% of women have viewed pornography at some time in the last year. Pornography use has been associated with both positive and negative outcomes depending on the user, and some of these conflicting results may stem from problematic measurement. Using a newly validated measure that assesses frequency, duration, arousal, and deliberate or accidental exposure to seven common types of pornography, we sought to understand whether the motivations to view pornography differed depending on biological sex of the user and the type of use they engaged in. With an MTurk.com sample of 312 participants, we used a variable selection to explore the most consistent predictors of pornography use. Results found that sexually based motivations were consistent motivations to use pornography for both males and females. Educationally based motivations reliably predicted accidental exposure to pornography, while emotions like sadness and tiredness reliably predicted longer durations of pornography use. These results indicate that motivations to view pornography are similar for males and females and that sexually based reasons and emotions are primary in an individual’s decision to use pornography.
ISSN:1066-4807
1552-3950
DOI:10.1177/1066480720956640