Experimental Effects of Exposure to Pornography: The Moderating Effect of Personality and Mediating Effect of Sexual Arousal
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2015 in Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 44(1), pp. 99-109
KEY FINDINGS
- This study found that higher past pornography consumption significantly predicts acceptance of violence against women - particularly among men with pre-existing sexually aggressive attitudes.
ABSTRACT
Using a randomly selected community sample of 200 Danish young adult men and women in a randomized experimental design, the study investigated the effects of a personality trait (agreeableness), past pornography consumption, and experimental exposure to non-violent pornography on attitudes supporting violence against women (ASV). We found that lower levels of agreeableness and higher levels of past pornography consumption significantly predicted ASV. In addition, experimental exposure to pornography increased ASV but only... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "We found that for both men and women lower agreeableness and higher past pornography consumption significantly predicted higher levels of ASV against women....specifically, support was found for the added ‘‘fuel to the fire’’contention by the HCM that pornography may prime‘‘pre-existing’’ sexually aggressive attitudes (here ASV) and behaviors among the subgroup of users most likely to already hold such attitudes."
