How People’s Porn Searches Change on Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2020 by Justin Lehmiller
Porn searches are seasonal.
When we look at trends in people’s porn searches throughout the year, they follow a predictable pattern of changes that reflect seasonal events and holidays. For example, there’s a reliable peak in porn searches related to Santa Claus each year around Christmas. Similarly, searches for “spooky” porn increase each year on Halloween.
So with Valentine’s Day upon us, should we expect a peak in searches for porn with themes of love and romance?
According to data from the popular adult tube site Pornhub, we most certainly should. As Pornhub reports, searches containing “Valentine” spike more than 1000% on February 14. They start to creep up a day or so in advance, but drop off pretty quickly after the holiday.
Examples of some of the more popular searches that rise significantly at this time of year are “love,” “passionate,” “romance,” “making love,” “massage,” and “erotic.”
These searches all increase by more than 100%, and they rise for male and female users of the site alike. However, porn consumption overall is a bit lower on Valentine’s Day compared to the average day, with traffic dropping considerably in the evening, when people are most likely to be out on dates.
It’s important to note that Pornhub doesn’t report what the average number of daily searches is for romantic terms—they just report the percentage increase in searches above the daily average. This means that if the average level of these searches is quite low to begin with, then an increase of more than 1000% might not amount to that many searches.
So while the data reported here are fascinating, we should be cautious about concluding that Valentine’s Day porn searches are super popular because it could very well be that a small percentage of folks are responsible for almost all of these searches.
So why do people’s porn searches seem to change throughout the year in ways that coincide with major events and holidays?
It likely has something to do with the fact that people tend to grow bored with sexual routines—we need sexual novelty and newness to keep our libidos revved up. Consistent with this idea, research has found that when people watch the same porn clip every day for a week, they tend to become less aroused with each viewing; however, when people are shown varied erotic clips instead, they maintain higher levels of arousal over time [1].
This phenomenon is known as the Coolidge Effect and it helps explain not just why porn searches fluctuate through the year, but also why novelty is one of the keys to maintaining passion in a long-term relationship.
The Coolidge Effect isn’t the only factor at play, of course. Love and romance are actually among the most common elements of our sexual fantasies (and, again, this is true across genders and sexualities), so it makes sense that a lot of people would be drawn to porn featuring such themes.
Any way you look at it, if you’re enjoying some Valentine-themed porn this week, you’re most definitely not alone.
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[1] Kelley, K., & Musialowski, D. (1986). Repeated exposure to sexually explicit stimuli: Novelty, sex, and sexual attitudes. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 487-498.
Image Credit: Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
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Dr. Justin Lehmiller
Founder & Owner of Sex and PsychologyDr. Justin Lehmiller is a social psychologist and Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute. He runs the Sex and Psychology blog and podcast and is author of the popular book Tell Me What You Want. Dr. Lehmiller is an award-winning educator, and a prolific researcher who has published more than 50 academic works.
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