A Meta-Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2016 in Journal of Communication, Vol. 66(1), pp. 183-205
KEY FINDINGS
- This meta-analyses study found that 22 studies from 7 different countries have shown that the consumption of pornography is assoicated with sexual agression.
ABSTRACT
Whether pornography consumption is a reliable correlate of sexually aggressive behavior continues to be debated. Meta-analyses of experimental studies have found effects on aggressive behavior and attitudes. That pornography consumption correlates with aggressive attitudes in naturalistic studies has also been found. Yet, no meta-analysis has addressed the question motivating this body of work: Is pornography consumption correlated with committing actual acts of sexual aggression? 22 studies from 7 different countries were... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "Although previous meta-analyses have had far smaller total sample sizes than the present synthesis’ 20,000 plus total, results were consistent with these earlier summaries in that pornography consumption was correlated with heightened sexual aggression risk. It is worth noting that the magnitude of both the overall corrected (r = .28) and uncorrected (r = .22) associations in the present meta-analysis, which focused on actual acts of sexual aggression, were larger than the overall association sizes found in prior syntheses that included a surrogate for sexual aggression risk."
- "Violent and nonviolent pornography consumption were each associated with sexual aggression and the difference between the associations was not significant...that nonviolent pornography consumption was associated with sexual aggression is consistent with the results of prior meta-analyses."
- "Pornography consumption was associated with sexually aggressive behavior in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The significant average association in longitudinal research, along with the findings of individual longitudinal studies in the meta-analysis, does not support the position that pornography–sexual aggression associations are simply due to sexually aggressive individuals watching content that conforms to their already established aggressive sexual scripts (Fisher et al., 2013). Brown and L’Engle (2009), for example, found that pornography consumption predicted boys’ later sexual aggression even after controlling for their earlier sexual aggression. Relatedly, D’Abreu and Krahe (2014) found that prior sexual aggression was a poor predictor of later pornography use."
