Using Less (Not More) Porn is Linked to More Sexual Problems

Many people view pornography as a public health hazard, arguing that it’s inherently bad for our sex lives, relationships, and mental health. Embedded in a lot of arguments about the negative effects of porn is that the more you use it, the more problems you’re going to experience. I mean, the concept of “porn addiction” pretty much implies non-stop, out-of-control use, right?

Interestingly, however, new research challenges this idea that more porn necessarily means more negative impacts. In fact, it finds precisely the opposite—the people using the least porn are reporting the most problems. So what’s that all about?

We’ll get to that in a second, but first, let’s discuss the new study, recently published in the Journal of Sex Research. The data come from a national sex survey in Germany involving 4,177 participants (44% women; age range of 18-75). The sample was weighted to be representative of the German population, but the final sample only included those who had consumed porn at some point in their lives.

Participants completed a survey about their porn use and sex lives. For purposes of the survey, “watching pornography” was defined broadly to include all media depictions of sexual and erotic acts (including film, photos, text, etc.) used for purposes of sexual arousal. Participants were asked to report how often they watched porn over the last year. They were also asked to report the impact that porn had on their sex lives, with response options including no impact, positive impact, negative impact, and both positive and negative impacts.

What kind of impacts did participants report? The majority (62%) reported no impact on their sex life. One-quarter (25%) reported a positive impact, 11% reported a mixed impact (both positive and negative), and just 2.5% said the impact was only negative. Of those who reported negative impacts only, most (57.5%) were men.

This is interesting in and of itself because, put another way, the vast majority (87%) of porn users report no impact or positive impacts only. It’s a relatively small group who report any negative impacts, and negative impacts only is uncommon.

Another interesting finding from the study was that “individuals who linked their pornography use to adverse sexual outcomes reported substantially less frequent use than participants who reported a positive role of pornography.” That’s right: less porn = more problems.

To many, this will seem counterintuitive. So why do low frequency users report more problems? There are a few potential explanations.

One possibility is that those who are using less porn are more religious. Several studies have found that greater religiosity is linked to lower porn use—and, at the same time, greater religiosity is linked to feeling morally conflicted about using porn. When moral incongruence is present (that is, you’re watching porn but you feel like it’s morally wrong), that’s when we tend to see negative impacts of porn. It doesn’t really matter how much you’re watching; rather, what matters is that you’re doing something that makes you feel morally conflicted. This can create psychological distress. And it can lead people to label their behavior as “addictive” even if it’s occurring at a low frequency.

Consistent with this idea, the new study I’ve been discussing above found that having a more religious upbringing and having moral issues with porn were linked to reporting more negative impacts.

Another possibility is that maybe some of the people in the negative impact group are watching different kinds of porn. This study didn’t account for the type of porn consumed, so it’s at least possible that this might play a role.

With all of that said, these results are fascinating because they challenge the popular idea that greater porn consumption necessarily translates to more sexual problems. Instead, it appears that frequency of use isn’t really the key to understanding the effects of porn. Far more people report no impact or positive impacts of porn than negative impacts—and the negative impacts likely have more to do with the moral lens through which you view porn.

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To learn more about this research, see: Štulhofer, A., Wiessner, C., Koletić, G., Pietras, L., & Briken, P. (2021). Religiosity, Perceived Effects of Pornography Use on Personal Sex Life, and Moral Incongruence: Insights from the German Health and Sexuality Survey (GeSiD). The Journal of Sex Research.