The Hill BY JOSHUA B. GRUBBS
In decades gone by, pornography was limited to seedy theaters or stacks of Playboys in your uncle’s closet. Now, an immense array of sexual media is always at our fingertips via the internet.
Given how accessible pornography is today, it comes as no surprise that many people are concerned about it. From earnest op-eds to toothless legislation calling pornography a “public health crisis,” to calls for warning labels, it seems that fears about pornography are everywhere.
Yet many of these concerns lack grounding in what careful scientific research has taught us about pornography use.
As a psychology professor and addiction researcher, I have made a career out of understanding pornography use and its effects, publishing dozens of scientific studies on the topic. Across that work, the most consistent finding is that simple narratives like “porn is bad” or “porn is good” are flawed. Such assertions, and the arguments that underpin them, always miss key information and are almost always wrong.
Those who foment panic about pornography often claim that pornography leads to addiction and mental health problems, damages the brain, results in violence against women, and drives epidemics of sexual dysfunction. The science does not currently support these claims.
Claims that pornography is inherently addictive are without basis. Some people do become out of control in their use of pornography, but the same can be said of exercise, shopping or even working. Yet, there is no rush to label most of these things as addictive because not every habitual behavior is an addiction.
And just because some people develop real problems with pornography, it does not mean that pornography is inherently likely to lead to those types of problems for most users. The scientific and psychiatric communities do not currently consider excessive pornography use to be an addictive disorder.
Dozens of studies have demonstrated that most people who view pornography do not feel addicted or out of control. Among people who do say they feel addicted, the reasons for those feelings range from real concerns about how much they view pornography to simple feelings of shame about their sexual behaviors…
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