Abstract: Coinciding with declining rates of marriage and coupled sex in the United States, some scholars have proposed that the growing availability of "low-cost sexual gratification" or "cheap sex"-sexual activities such as hookups, pornography use, and masturbation that demand little effort or investment-will lead men to find marital commitment less appealing. Using data from two nationally representative surveys of American adults (2012 New Family Structures Study, N = 349; 2014 Relationships in America Survey, N = 1,402), the current study tested the thesis that unmarried men's pornography use, masturbation habits, or frequency of recent hookup sex would be associated with a lower likelihood of them finding marriage desirable. This thesis was unsupported. In both surveys, masturbation and hookup sex were not associated with unmarried men wishing to be married, while pornography use was robustly and linearly associated with a higher likelihood of wanting to be married. This association was apparent at both the bivariate level and after taking into account sexual satisfaction, relationship status, beliefs about marriage, and a host of other potential confounds. Findings suggest that, rather than making marriage less desirable, some forms of "low-cost sexual gratification" such as pornography use predict a comparatively higher desire for marriage. The implications of these findings are considered in light of sex-exchange theories of marital commitment and the large body of previous research connecting pornography use to more liberal, non-monogamous sexual attitudes.
DISCUSSION
Numerous studies have elaborated and tested theories relating to heterosexual men and
women engaging in “exchanges” for sex, either implicitly in romantic relationships or more
explicitly in sex work. While Malcolm and Naufal (2016) found a robust association between
Internet pornography use and lower marriage rates among men, no studies tested whether access
to forms of “low-cost sexual gratification” is associated with men’s lower expressed desire for
marriage. Using two nationally representative data sets with nearly identical measures, the
current study found no evidence that hookup sex, masturbation, or pornography use, either at the
bivariate level or with proper controls in place, seemed to disincline single men from wanting to
be married. Moreover, while sexual dissatisfaction did indeed seem to be a strong correlate of
single, never-married men wanting to be married (Regnerus, 2017), “low-cost” sexual
alternatives did not seem to mitigate that association. Indeed, even with all the low/nocommitment sexual activities included in full models in Tables 3 and 4, the odds ratios of sexual
dissatisfaction were only slightly reduced, and not at all in their statistical significance.
Conversely, pornography viewing frequency turned out to be a significant, positive
predictor of wanting to be married even when relationship status, beliefs about marriage, sex frequency, masturbation, and sexual satisfaction were taken into account. In other words, holding
constant how much casual sex single men were having, their level of satisfaction with that sex,
how much they masturbate, or even their views about marriage as an institution, viewing
pornography did not seem to make them less inclined to want marriage, but could, in fact, make
them more interested in the prospect of a committed romantic relationship.
How might that happen? Pornography use cannot merely be a proxy for men’s desire to
experience some sort of immediate sexual gratification that marriage might provide since the
models control for sexual contentment, as well as masturbation, sexual frequency, and romantic
involvement. And while several bivariate associations (Table 2) and multivariate associations
(e.g., hookup sex in Table 3, Model 2) suggest that low/no-commitment sexual alternatives
might disincline single men from preferring marriage, it could be that pornography use simply
does not provide an alternative to committed romantic relationships as some propose (e.g.,
Malcolm & Naufal, 2016; Perry & Longest, 2018; Regnerus, 2017, 2019).
To nuance the “low-cost sexual gratification” thesis, perhaps pornography in particular
does not replace committed, romantic relationships, but stimulates a desire for a committed
relationship in which sex would be more consistently available. As Regnerus (2017, pp. 42-43)
pointed out, even single men who are engaging in “cheap-sex” activities anticipate that they will
eventually get married. Regnerus (2017) explains, “Many men anticipate their own greater
willingness to eventually pay the elevated price (of marriage)…And even though they may feel
like they’re in the driver’s seat in the marriage market, ideal spouses grow less numerous with
time” (pp. 42-43). Though studies have suggested pornography use may stimulate a desire for
casual, non-monogamous sex (Grubbs et al., 2019; Tokunaga et al., 2019; Wright & Tokunaga,
2016; Wright et al., 2014), it is possible that pornography use may promote more “strategic” or “anticipatory” thinking among men, namely, provoking a desire for situations in which sex
would be more readily available long-term. Indeed, while some empirical research suggests that
frequent pornography use is associated with greater interest in non-monogamous sexual
relationships (see studies reviewed in Grubbs et al., 2019), nuanced with the findings presented
here, it may be that pornography use indirectly inclines unmarried men to opt into the sort of
long-term commitment marriage entails (Malcolm & Naufal, 2016; Regnerus, 2017, 2019).
There were limitations of these data. Most importantly, they were cross-sectional and
thus causal relationships cannot be definitively demonstrated. Closely related to this limitation is
the fact that these data only measure single men’s expressed desire to be married, which is
different from capturing their likelihood of actually getting married later on. While desire for
marriage does directly test a thesis put forward by the “low-cost sexual gratification” argument,
it would obviously be necessary to take actual outcomes into account in order to demonstrate
whether pornography use, masturbation, or hookup sex contributed to a higher likelihood of
eventual marriage among young men. Future studies testing these theories would ideally use
longitudinal designs wherein scholars can examine the influence of pornography use or hookup
sex on the relationship trajectories of men and women over their life course (Perry & Longest,
2018 represented a preliminary attempt at this). Another limitation is that the measure of
“hookup sex” (sexual frequency in the past 1-2 weeks × not currently in a relationship) was less
direct than desirable. While the end result was arguably the same as it would have been
otherwise, future studies on this topic would benefit from a more direct measure of hookup sex
that would inquire about participants’ frequency of casual sex with partners with whom the
participant is not currently in a relationship.
Along these lines, due to data limitations, this study was not able to test one aspect of
Regnerus’ (2017) overall thesis, which was that earlier time-to-sex in romantic relationships also
introduced a form of low-commitment sexual gratification that women felt pressured to offer
(because of alternatives like pornography, hookups, etc.) that could potentially disincline men to
be interested in marital commitment. Future studies would ideally inquire about young people in
the earlier stages of their romantic relationship and how long into their relationship they had sex.
Lastly, while the link between pornography use and desire for marriage in both surveys was
clearly robust, it was not possible to discern the precise mechanisms behind greater pornography
use and men’s desire to be married. Qualitative interviews would be more ideal to flesh out
exactly how frequent pornography viewers think about marriage.
These limitations notwithstanding, the current study has extended our understanding of
the contemporary association between low/no-commitment sexual activities and desire for
marriage among single, never-married men. Though declining rates of marriage and coupled sex
are likely the result of a variety of interrelated factors, findings from the current study suggest
that one of those factors is unlikely to be declining interest among young men that results from
engaging in “low-cost” sexual alternatives like pornography use, masturbation, and hookup sex.
Masturbation and hookup sex were ultimately unrelated to single-men’s preference to be
married, and pornography use was associated with greater desire for marriage among single men.
Yet it is worth thinking about whether these observed associations may be any different in the
future. Though the relationship between hookup sex and desire for marriage, for example, was
non-significant in the full models of the 2012 NFSS, it was marginal (p = .052), and was
statistically significant at .05 before pornography and masturbation were taken into account
(Table 3, Model 2). It could be that while pornography use, and perhaps masturbation (Table 4, Model 3), may incline single, never-married men to pursue marriage, greater access to casual sex
does provide a weak disincentive to get married. As the interviewees in Huang et al.’s (2011)
analysis suspected, it may be that easier access to sexual activity, as long as it is with a real
person, could make men less inclined to get married. This would be consistent with Regnerus’
(2017) argument that earlier time-to-sex in heterosexual romantic relationships (because they
exchange sex for little commitment) are the sort of “low-cost” sexual alternative that might
disincline men to commit to marriage. As casual sex becomes less stigmatized within society,
scholars should revisit these findings in order to discern whether hookups now provide a robust
disinclination for men to marry. So too, as more couples intentionally opt for long-term
cohabiting relationships rather than formal marriage, scholars could also revisit how earlier sex,
hookup sex, and other forms of low-commitment sexual activity may play a role.
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