Approach Bias for Erotic Stimuli Among Heterosexual Female College Students Who Use Pornography
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2020 in Addictive Behaviors
KEY FINDINGS
- This study with heterosexual women found that the more severe a consumer's pornography habit, the more they displayed approach bias for erotic stimuli, which is a key cognitive process common in addictive behaviors
ABSTRACT
Repeated engagement in addictive behaviors may lead to relatively automatic action tendencies whereby individuals approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged females who report using pornography. We tested 121 female undergraduates using an approach-avoidance task (AAT) employing both erotic and neutral stimuli, during which participants were instructed to push or pull a gaming joystick in response to image orientation.... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "The findings partially support the hypothesis that pornography use severity would be associated with the degree of approach for erotic stimuli. Similarly to Sklenarik et al. (2019) and Stark et al. (2017), we found a positive linear relationship between approach biases and severity of pornography use, as measured by the PPUS. There was a significant positive correlation between erotic approach bias scores on the AAT and scores on the PPUS , indicating that approach bias for erotic stimuli increases as severity of pornography use increases."
- "Future studies could investigate treatments based on approach biases, given data supporting their efficacy (Wiers et al., 2011). For example, inpatients with alcoholism were implicitly or explicitly trained to make avoidance movements (i.e., always push the joystick) in response to alcohol stimuli on an alcohol-AAT. After four brief sessions of this cognitive bias modification (CBM) intervention, approach biases for alcohol turned into avoidance biases, which translated into better treatment outcome and decreased, real-life drinking at a one-year follow-up (Wiers et al., 2011). Indeed, studies suggest that CBM can effectively diminish cognitive biases for addictive stimuli through the use of video games or virtual reality, and may be efficacious in reducing real-life, problematic behaviors (Boendermaker, Prins, & Wiers, 2015). Hence, this study adds to a growing literature regarding the cognitive and behavioral aspects of problematic pornography use among women and suggests a path and need for further research."
