Why Do People Watch Porn? An Evolutionary Perspective on the Reasons for Pornography Consumption. Vlad Burtaverde et al. Evolutionary Psychology, June 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049211028798
Abstract: We investigated the reasons for pornography consumption using a bottom-up approach (i.e., open-ended questionnaire) and proposed that those reasons would reflect a short-term mating orientation of individuals that watch pornography and a strategy that should help them to attract or maintain potential mates easier (i.e., a fitness increasing strategies) by enhancing their sexual knowledge through pornography watching. In Study 1 (N = 276), relying on an open-ended questionnaire and a content analysis, we identified 78 reasons for why people claim to consume pornography. In Study 2 (N = 322), we grouped those reasons into categories using a series of factor analyses, resulting in four dimensions of reasons for watching pornography: (1) increased sex drive, (2) enhancing sexual performance, (3) social and instrumental reasons, and (4) lack of relational and emotional skills. The content of these factors supported the idea that the reasons for consuming pornography are reflections of a short-term mating orientation and a way to enhance their sexual knowledge and performance. Individuals with higher scores on the dimensions of reasons for pornography consumptions had higher scores on the Dark Triad traits and sociosexuality, mate-value and slow life history strategies (in the case of enhancing sexual performance dimension). In Study 3 (N = 327), we tested to what extent the factorial structure of the reasons for pornography consumption can be confirmed via Confirmatory factor analysis and tested the convergent validity of the reasons to consume pornography.
Keywords: pornography consumption, evolutionary psychology, dark triad traits, sex differences, sociosexuality
In this study, we examined the self-reported reasons people consume pornography, as well as the personality correlates of those reason. In Study 1, we identified 78 reasons for watching pornography that we clustered in four broad dimensions in Study 2: increased sex drive, enhancing sexual performance, social and instrumental reasons, and lack of relational and emotional skills. These dimensions were associated with individual differences in the Dark Triad traits, sociosexuality, mate value, and life history strategies. Apart from “enhancing sexual performance”, men endorsed the reasons for pornography consumption more strongly. Finally, psychopathy mediated the relationship between sex and several reasons to consume pornography. In Study 3, we confirmed the factorial structure of the reasons to watch pornography using Confirmatory factor analysis, obtaining a final version of the questionnaire, consisting of 27 items. Also, we inspected the convergennt validity of the questionnaire, showing that the four dimensions are related to sexual disgust and sexual fantasies.
Regarding the identified reasons to watch pornography, our findings are partially aligned with other studies. Some of the most important reasons to consume pornography identified in other research include sexual exploration and learning about sexual health, coping, pleasure and enhancing offline sexuality (e.g., comfort when in a bad mood), emotional avoidance, and social reasons (Bolshinsky & Gelkopf, 2019; Franc et al., 2018; Hare et al., 2015; Reid et al., 2011). As we relied on an a bottom-up approach (i.e., open-ended questions), while other studies used a top-down approach that relied on content specified a priori, the similarity of the findings suggests a high degree of universality of the reasons for pornography consumption.
We contend that researchers could benefit from an evolutionary framework to better understand why people consume pornography. As such, we considered that the identified reasons could be understood as a reflection of a short-term mating orientation (e.g., high sociosexuality) and a fitness increasing strategy to enhance the probability of attracting a mate, and, implicitly, the probability of reproducing. We can see that the first identified dimension of pornography consumption reasons (i.e., sex drive) was composed of items such as “because sexual thoughts come to my mind”, and “for the pleasure of seeing other people’s bodies”. Individuals with high scores on this dimension had high levels of the Dark Triad traits and were more interested in casual sex (i.e., high sociosexuality) sociosexuality. Therefore, considering the content of this dimension and its correlates, we can assume that it reflects a short-term mating orientation. Individuals characterized by short-term mating may choose to engage in watching pornography to satisfy their increased sex drive, in contexts and situations when they cannot engage in casual sex. As such, the increased sex drive dimension of reasons for watching pornography should not be understood as an adaptation, but as a by-product that clusters around adaptations such as short-term mating orientation.
The second dimension of the reasons for watching pornography was enhancing sexual performance. We argued that, besides a reflection of a short-term mating orientation, reasons to watch pornography might be understood as a tactic that enhances the probability of attracting a mate, and, implicitly, the probability of reproducing. This second dimension was represented by items such as “to learn new sex positions” and “to understand the sexual pleasures of people of the opposite sex, being called “enhancing sexual performance.” Individuals high on this dimension had higher scores on the Dark Triad traits and sociosexuality, but, more interestingly, on mate value and slow life history strategy. Therefore, we can argue that people who perceive themselves as having high mate value and who are characterized by a slow life history strategy (i.e., high-K)—which is characterized by preferences for long-term mating—try to perfect their sexual skills through gathering new knowledge from pornographic movies. Doing so may enable them to better signal their “value” to their partners during sexual intercourse, meaning that they pay attention to the first impression they make on new mates, as the first impression is important in human relationships (Harris & Garris, 2008).
The third dimension of the reasons for pornography consumption was represented by items like “because all my friends are watching”, and “I paint nudes, and it is my source of inspiration”; we called this dimension “social and instrumental reasons”. Individuals with high scores on this dimension also had high levels of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sociosexuality. It seems that this category of reasons for watching pornography reflects reasons that refer to watching pornography mainly because of seeking the acceptance of social groups, such as friends. This may be explained by the fact that watching pornography is a common habit (Hald, 2006). It is well known that young people (such as those from our samples) place great importance in their reputation and social acceptance more than older people (Marshall, 2001) and watching pornography may facilitate social approval among peers, especially college-aged ones.
The fourth factor of the reasons for pornography consumption (i.e., lack of relational and emotional skills) was composed of items like “due to the absence of a romantic relationship” and “it helps me drive away from my stressful thoughts”. People high on this dimension had lower scores on Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sociosexuality. The reasons encompassed by this factor suggest that individuals who score high on them watch pornography to regulate their mood and deal with negative emotions. This is congruent with other findings that showed that one of the reasons for pornography consumption is mood regulation (e.g., comforting when in a bad mood; Franc et al., 2018). It seems that people use pornography to alleviate negative emotions, which may be explained by the fact that pornography consumption induces psychological moods and emotions (e.g., pleasure, satisfaction) as those elicited during casual sex and sexual intercourse (Hald & Malamuth, 2008).
We found that men had higher scores on the dimensions of reasons for pornography consumption, except for the of enhancing sexual performance. That was to be expected, as men usually have a higher sex drive and more sexual fantasies than women (Baughman et al., 2014), being more oriented to short-term mating (Jonason et al., 2009). The fact that there were no sex differences on the dimension enhancing sexual performance is congruent with the idea that both men and women struggle with skills for mate retention (Apostolou, 2007). In traditional societies, parents used to choose the partners for their children (Apostolou et al., 2018). Therefore, both men and women engage in strategies to increase their fitness to attract mates and enhancing their sexual knowledge and performance, is one of them.
Psychopathy mediated the relationship between sex and the reasons to consume pornography (excepting the dimension of enhancing sexual performance, as there were no sex differences). This may be because men are more interested in casual sex than women (Jonason et al., 2009), have a wider array of sexual fantasies (Baughman et al., 2014), and men high on psychopathy have frequent sexual fantasies (Baughman et al., 2014), and may use pornography to satisfy this need. Therefore, psychopathy represents an explicative mechanism of the indirect relationship between sex and the reasons to consume pornography.
The findings of this research materialized on a psychometric measure that should be useful in assessing the reasons for pornography consumption in both research and practice settings, showing very good psychometric properties. The measure was developed using both qualitative and quantitative approach which should maximize the probability of tapping the most important reasons for pornography consumption, enhancing the internal validity of future research.
Limitations and Conclusions
Even though this research is, to our knowledge, the first to propose an evolutionary perspective on the reasons for watching pornography, it has some important limitations. First, our samples consisted mostly of young individuals, who are, in general, more interested, but less experienced in sex than older people (Buckingham & Bragg, 2004). Second, our samples consisted mostly of women. Because research has consistently shown that men seem to be more interested in sex than women (e.g., Jonason et al., 2009), further studies should use more balanced samples in terms of sex ratio when examining these factors. Third, we relied on non-probabilistic convenience samples and our findings are sample-dependent (e.g., WE.I.R.D. participants; Henrich et al., 2010) which may affect the generalizability of the research. Although many studies in psychology use convenience student samples, future studies should include more heterogeneous participants to increase the generalizability of the findings.
Despite these limitations, we showed that the reasons for pornography consumption are varied and can be understood from an evolutionary perspective. They represent reflections of a short-term mating orientation and fitness-increasing strategies—tactics that enhance the probability of maintaining a mate. We also proposed a psychometric measure for researchers and practitioners interested in pornography consumption reasons.
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