Interesting findings from past research in the SoAR Lab.

Pornography Use in Romantic Relationships Study

In March and April 2021, adults who had been in a relationship for a minimum of 6 months were recruited via Reddit and Facebook to complete a survey containing over 100 questions about their porn use. The final sample was predominantly US based and non-religious, and was made up of 1504 adults (77% were men, average age of the sample was 29 years) who had been in their current romantic relationship for an average of 6 years. The study provided invaluable data which was used to create a measure of porn use in romantic relationships that is currently being prepared for peer review. The measure not only assesses frequency of porn use, but also the content of the pornography used and the context in which it is used. This measure provides a solid foundation for future research in this area, and may also be used in clinical settings such as couple therapy where one or both partners are using porn. Some interesting preliminary findings are presented below.

·         Most of the sample (67%) reported using porn a few times a week or more on average in the past year.

·         Pornographic films on the internet were by far the most common form of porn used by the sample, with 90% of the sample reporting that this made up at least half of the porn they used. Pornographic pictures on the internet were the next most common, followed by pornographic novels and other written text, whilst pornographic magazines, audio pornography, pornographic DVDs, videos and films on television were rarely used.

·         Most of the sample (57%) strongly agreed that using porn is acceptable (which increased to 65% if the porn use is with one’s partner). However, almost half of the sample (46%) believed that porn depicted people as sexual objects, and only 5% of the sample strongly agreed with the statement: “My partner likes that I use pornography.”

·         Most of the sample (67%) reported first using porn between the ages of 11 and 14, with approximately 16% first using porn when they were 10 years old or younger.

·         About half the sample (51%) had used porn more than once a day at some point in their life.

·         Since first using porn, only 11% of the sample had gone a period of 1 year or longer without using porn.

·         Over half of the sample (58%) reported that masturbation was why they used porn. This was the most common reason people used porn in the sample.

A follow-on study titled Understanding Sexual Arousal in Romantic Relationships has just finished recruiting, which includes the new measure of porn use in romantic relationships. The study is no longer taking new participants, but details can be found on our current studies page.