Models about others are formed through psychological adaptations designed to acquire information from the environment; pornography provides information about mating strategies/perception of promiscuity

How pornography calibrates our perception of women's sexuality. Hilary R Keil. California State Univ. at Fullerton, Master's Thesis, Fall 2018. https://search.proquest.com/openview/36902c3e23bc3779e1c8054316d6dcc4/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Abstract: Models about others are formed through psychological adaptations designed to acquire information from the environment. These adaptations may begin with prior probabilities. Pornography provides information about mating strategies and men’s and women’s sexual behaviors. Information updating allows the individual to adjust according to cues gathered from their environment combined with their previous cue-based beliefs. Given that cue-updating is occurring continuously, in the present study, cognitive and evolutionary psychology approaches were used to understand how pornography consumption affects perceptions of women’s promiscuity and engagement in atypical sexual practices. Participants (N = 617) were asked to complete an online questionnaire assessing their weekly pornography consumption, perceptions of women’s sexuality, and social desirability. Results suggest that pornography consumption influences perceptions of women’s promiscuity and engagement in atypical sexual practices in both men and women. Additionally, men are using more pornography overall than women. Taken together, these results suggest that cue updating from pornography is occurring in both men and women, and perceptions of women’s sexuality is calibrated based on experiencing in the local environment. 

Keywords: Pornography, Women’s Sexuality, Bayesian Development, Cue-Updating