Pulling for pleasure? Erotic approach-bias associated with porn use, not problems

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Addictive behaviors are gaining recognition in the clinical community, leading to more attention for the effects of problematic porn use. As many addictive behaviors are characterized by automatically activated approach-tendencies for disorder-relevant stimuli, we tested whether such tendencies are also present for erotic images and whether these are related to problematic porn use. Methods: Measuring approach-bias for erotic photographs, sixty-two healthy heterosexual and bisexual men completed both a relevant-feature and an irrelevant-feature approach-avoidance task (AAT). Half of participants operated a joystick as response device, the other half a keyboard. We recorded participants' number of weekly porn-viewing sessions and symptoms of problematic porn use. Results: The irrelevant-feature AAT produced unreliable results and was not analyzed further. In the relevant-feature AAT, participants had an overall approach-bias towards erotic stimuli. Porn use frequency, but not problematic porn use, was associated with with greater erotic approachbias. This relationship was stronger when measured with a joystick than with a keyboard. Limitations: Our design did not allow to test the causal direction of the relationship between porn use and approach-bias, and our results cannot be generalized to women, non-heterosexual men, and clinical populations. Conclusions: Similar to other addictive behaviors and substances, we found a positive relation

Cognitive processes related to problematic pornography use (PPU): A systematic review of experimental studies

“…Furthermore, in males but not in females, individuals with PPU demonstrated stronger approach bias toward sexual stimuli than non-problematic pornography users: in particular, problematic pornography users showed more than a 200% stronger approach bias than individuals without PPU. Finally, Kahveci et al (2020) found that individuals reporting using pornography on a more regular basis showed stronger approach biases towards sexual stimuli; however, severity of pornography consumption (measured through the Problematic Pornography Use Scale –PPUS–) did not significantly correlate with approach bias, and problematic and non-problematic pornography users did not differ in terms of approach biases toward sexual stimuli. These findings suggest that frequency –but not severity– of pornography consumption may constitute the key factor when predicting approach biases toward sexual stimuli.…”

“…The first step of decision making is also influenced by another cognitive process: approach bias toward appetitive stimuli. Approach bias is defined as “ an automatically activated action tendency to approach reward-related cues ” ( Kahveci, van Bocstaele, Blechert, & Wiers, 2020, p. 2 ). The most popular paradigm to assess this aspect is the approach-avoidance task (AAT).…”

“…As for the stimuli, three studies included both neutral and sexual stimuli (in particular, pictures), whereas the fourth study only included sexual stimuli. As for the task instructions, two studies used ‘task-irrelevant instructions’ (pull or push the stimuli according to image orientation –horizontal vs. vertical–) ( Sklenarik et al, 2019 , 2020) and two used ‘task-relevant instructions’ (pull or push the stimuli according to their content –sexual vs. neutral or clothed vs. nude–) ( Kahveci et al, 2020 , Snagowski and Brand, 2015 ). These differences may explain some of the inconsistent results found in these studies.…”

“…Thus, participants scoring higher in the PPUS (i.e., experiencing more problems to control their pornography use) showed stronger approach biases toward sexual stimuli. Kahveci et al (2020) Netherlands 62 male university students ( M age = 24.47; SD = 6.42): (a) 57 healthy pornography users and (b) 5 problematic users. Decision-making (in particular, approach-avoidance tendencies) Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) including female stimuli (both clothed and nude).Task-relevant instructions (pull or push the stimuli according to their content –clothed vs. nude–).…”

Psychometric Properties of the Problematic Pornography Use Scale in a Japanese Sample

“…Consequently, we used the Mann-Whitney U test to examine differences in gender and marital status, and Spearman correlations to evaluate the relationship between the PPUS-J and sexual, gaming, and Internet behaviors, and the SCS, GAS, CIUS, K6, TIL, and SDISS to examine convergent and divergent validity. Furthermore, although the PPUS does not have a specified validated cutoff score, in previous studies participants with a PPUS score of 28 or higher were classified as problematic pornography users (Kahveci et al, 2020;Sklenarik et al, 2019). Therefore, in this study, individuals with a PPUS-J score of 28 or higher were classified as problematic pornography users.…”