More than a dalliance? Pornography consumption and extramarital sex attitudes among married U.S. adults.

Abstract

Extramarital sex is one of the most commonly cited reasons for divorce. U.S. adults who have more positive extramarital sex attitudes are more likely to engage in extramarital sex. Given pornography's positive portrayal of extramarital sex, several recent studies have explored whether people who consume pornography have a more positive attitude toward extramarital sex. Consistent correlations have been found, but limitations to inference are posed by the sampling of adolescents and college students and the cross-sectional designs used. This brief report used national panel data gathered from two separate samples of married U.S. adults. Data were gathered from the first sample in 2006 and in 2008 (N ϭ 282). Data were gathered from the second sample in 2008 and in 2010 (N ϭ 269). Consistent with a social learning perspective on media, prior pornography consumption was correlated with more positive subsequent extramarital sex attitudes in both samples, even after controlling for earlier extramarital sex attitudes and nine additional potential confounds. Contrary to a selective exposure perspective on media, prior extramarital sex attitudes were unrelated to subsequent pornography consumption in both samples.

Perceived Realism Moderates the Relation Between Sexualized Media Consumption and Permissive Sexual Attitudes in Dutch Adolescents

“…In the married subsample of this panel study, it was found that pornography consumption was related to more positive subsequent extramarital sex attitudes, but, again, extramarital sex attitudes did not predict subsequent pornography consumption (Wright, Tokunaga, & Bae, 2014). Finally, among Dutch adolescents in grades 8-10, boys who had more permissive sexual attitudes at the beginning of the study showed a stronger increase in their sexually explicit internet material (Doornwaard, van den Eijnden, Overbeek, & ter Bogt, 2014) but no such link was found for girls.…”

Sexually explicit media use and relationship satisfaction: a moderating role of emotional intimacy?

“…EmmersSommer, Hertlein, & Kennedy, 2013;Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, & Fincham, 2012;Maddox et al, 2011;Wright, Tokunaga, & Bae, 2014) and sexist and sexually aggressive attitudes (Hald & Malamuth, 2015;Hald, Malamuth, & Lange, 2013) and has investigated the role of SEM use in couples' relationship satisfaction primarily as a side effect.…”

Pornography use and marital quality: Testing the moral incongruence hypothesis

“…First, viewing pornography at all predicts lower levels of marital quality over time and this relation is not significantly moderated by whether married Americans are violating their moral views by using it. This would suggest that the primary issue is not whether pornography users are experiencing moral incongruence thereby negatively affecting their marriage, but the other factors that are attendant to pornography use that could include negatively influencing viewers' sexual scripts (Sun et al, ; Wright et al, ; Zillmann & Bryant, ) or creating tension in the relationship around one partner's private pornography use (Maddox et al, ; Willoughby et al, ). And yet, moral incongruence plays a role in intensifying the negative association between pornography use and marital quality for those who already view pornography.…”

“…Alternatively, if this hypothesis does not hold true, it would suggest that the connection between pornography use and marital quality stems primarily from other factors described in the literature outlining scripting and viewing discrepancy theories (Perry, ; Sun et al, ; Willoughby et al, ; Wright et al, ).…”

“…While there is general consensus that pornography use-as it is most commonly practicedtends to be negatively correlated with relationship quality, there is far less consensus regarding the primary mechanisms at work in this association. The most popular theory suggests that viewing pornography can influence relationship quality by shaping viewers' "sexual scripts" about sexual relationships, intimacy, and body image (Perry, 2017a;Sun, Bridges, Johnason, & Ezzell, 2016;Wright, Tokunaga, & Bae, 2014;Zillmann & Bryant, 1988). To the extent that viewers internalize these scripts or messages, they may be less satisfied with their actual romantic relationships in terms of sexual quality and/or physical appearance (e.g., Staley & Prause, 2013;Sun et al, 2016;Wright et al, 2014).…”