A Love That Doesn’t Last: Pornography Consumption and Weakened Commitment to One’s Romantic Partner
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2012 in Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol 31(4), pp. 410-438
KEY FINDINGS
- In a series of five experimental studies, this article reports that pornography consumption leads to weakened commitment in young adult romantic relationships.
ABSTRACT
We examined whether the consumption of pornography affects romantic relationships, with the expectation that higher levels of pornography consumption would correspond to weakened commitment in young adult romantic relationships. Study 1 (n = 367) found that higher pornography consumption was related to lower commitment, and Study 2 (n = 34) replicated this finding using observational data. Study 3 (n = 20) participants were randomly assigned to either refrain from viewing pornography or to a self-control task. Those who... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "Using a variety of methods, we demonstrated that pornography consumption is associated with weakened commitment to one’s relationship partner...results indicated that participants who refrained from pornography reported higher levels of commitment than participants who continued to use pornography, indicating that pornography consumption has a negative effect on commitment."
