Pornography Leads to Sexual Aggression, New Study Says
A meta-analysis assessing 22 different studies from seven different countries around the world warns that consumption of pornography is significantly linked to increases in sexual aggression, both verbal and physical.
"The accumulated data leave little doubt that, on the average, individuals who consume pornography more frequently are more likely to hold attitudes conducive to sexual aggression and engage in actual acts of sexual aggression than individuals who do not consume pornography or who consume pornography less frequently," says the study, "A Meta-Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies," published in the Journal of Communication.
As cited by Family First NZ, a New Zealand-based charity, the study out of Indiana University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa found that internationally the consumption of pornography is associated significantly with both verbal and physical aggression, among males and females alike.
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"The association for physical sexual aggression, although smaller than the association for verbal sexual aggression, was still positive and significant. Pornography consumption was associated with an increased probability of the use or threat of force to obtain sex," the study says.
Family First National Director Bob McCoskrie says: "Social scientists, clinical psychologists, biologists and neurologists are now beginning to understand the psychological and biological negative effects of viewing pornography. They show that men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity. Prolonged consumption of pornography results in stronger perceptions of women as commodities or as "sex objects."
Family First notes that the findings are consistent with an earlier 2002 meta-analysis by the National Foundation for Family Research and Education at the University of Calgary, which found that viewing pornography leads to perceptions of sexual dominance, sex role stereotyping, viewing persons as sexual objects, sexual aggressiveness and sexually hostility and violent behaviours.
Another meta-analysis of eight studies by Michael Seto and Martin Lalumière in 2010 found that male adolescent sex offenders reported more exposure to sex or pornography than male adolescent non-sex offenders, the group adds.
McCoskrie says the latest study adds to the growing evidence that porn harms. "If we want to tackle sexual violence, we must first admit the role that pornography plays and the harm that it does to attitudes and actions."
Earlier in 2011, scholar Jennifer S. Bryson said the frequency with which terrorists are being found with pornography raises important questions about its possible effects on America's national security and it can no longer be seen with a dismissive "boys will be boys" attitude.
Referring to a 2009 report in an Algerian daily, Echorouk, about the al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb group's use of pornographic websites to post its statements and audio messages, Bryson underlined the importance of knowing why an al-Qaida affiliate would select pornography to target new recruits.
