The Effects of Exposure to Pornography: An Empirical Contribution to the Porn Debate

Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 2006

The Effects of Exposure to Pornography: An Empirical Contribution to the Porn Debate, Gert Martin M. Hald, University of Aarhus, Denmark

This study examined adverse effects of pornography. We used a randomized control-experimental group comparative design to investigate the following dependent variables: Attitudes Toward Women, Sexism, Rape Myth Acceptance, Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence, Gender Stereotypes, and Emotionality. Subjects consisted of a randomly selected representative sample of 200 young Danish adult males (100) and females (100) aged 18-30. All subjects were exposed to either popular hardcore pornographic video material (experimental group) or control material (control group) in an individual setting. Subjects were then asked to fill in Danish translations of internationally validated questionnaires measuring the dependent variables. We found no significant differences between the experimental group and the control group on any of the dependent variables except Emotionality. A significant difference in negative emotional response was found with the experimental group displaying a significantly higher negative emotional response than the control group. On a between-group basis, all results remained stable across gender, age, level of education, relationship status, age of first exposure to pornography, and pornography consumption per week. Apart from an increased negative emotional response, the experiment revealed no significant differences between the experimental group and the control group on any of the dependent variables. The results suggest that, for the average consumer of popular hardcore pornography aged 18-30, commonly-feared adverse effects of pornography are non-existent or, at worst, minimal. However, exposure to different kinds of pornography might yield different results. Also, certain subgroups of users might be affected differently by pornography than the population in general.