Pornography

Definition

The term pornography refers to sexually explicit media that are primarily intended to sexually arouse the consumer. Such media include magazines, the Internet, and films. They have become very common in many societies and are reported to regularly provide huge profits for the producers and distributors of such media.

Gender Differences

Some of the social scientific research in this area has focused on who are most likely to be the consumers of these media. The findings reveal considerable gender differences in consumption and use of pornography, [Page 679]although within each gender there are also large differences in consumption. Generally, research has found that males are more likely to be consumers of various types of pornography, although some women also do use and enjoy pornography. Men have been found to be much more likely to use pornography on their own, often as a stimulant to masturbation. A considerable number of men and women report using pornography in the context of a relationship where such media are used together by a couple.

Men generally are more likely to be attracted to pornography and to use it more regularly, and they generally have more favorable attitudes, and react with less negative affect, to it. This is particularly true for portrayals featuring nudity of the opposite sex, often in various sexual poses, and portrayals of sexual acts devoid of relationship context. In contrast, men are less likely than women to consume sexually explicit media that emphasize sexual communion and romance.

Effects

The question of what impact exposure to such pornoGraphic materials has on consumers has been debated and researched from many vantage points. Although social psychological research has been designed to be objective, it appears that the types of hypotheses tested have often been guided by ideological/political perspectives on this topic. For example, some researchers, guided by assertions made by conservative thinkers, have tested whether exposure to pornography can affect attitudes about family life and commitment to long-term relationships. Other researchers, guided by concerns of feminists, have tested whether pornography exposure affects attitudes and behaviors toward women, particularly in areas such as violence against women.

Social scientific research on pornography's effects includes primarily three types of studies using differing methodologies. Each type of method has certain advantages and disadvantages. First are studies that seek to find out if there may be causal effects of exposure to different types of pornography. Typically, such studies have randomly assigned participants to different conditions. The researchers then manipulated how much pornography, if any, the participants in the various conditions were exposed to. These studies have usually been conducted in laboratory environments, although some relevant experiments have also been successfully completed in less artificial environments. The value of such research is that it can determine cause and effect with confidence because participants in the various conditions may be considered equal before their pornography exposure because of random assignment to conditions. Any differences found after different pornography exposure may be attributed to the differences in exposure content and amounts. The second type of research has not involved any manipulation by the researchers of amount of pornography consumption. Instead, people have been surveyed regarding how much and what type of pornography they have been exposed to in their daily lives, and such differences have been correlated with differences in their attitudes and behaviors. Although it is more difficult to identify causal connections in this type of research, there is the advantage of studying what people actually are like in their usual environments. The third type of research has examined in various cultures how much pornography is being consumed in the society at large and changes in such consumption over time. Such changes have then been correlated with other changes in the society, such as changes in sexual crimes. Although such research has provided an interesting window regarding varied cultures, one problem is that it is difficult to relate changes at the larger societal level to individual behavior. Also, there are typically many other changes that have occurred in a society at the same time as changes in pornography consumption have been happening.

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