People who consume hentai appear to differ on several characteristics from those who consume other types of pornography, according to new research published in the journal Sexologies. But they do not appear to differ from others in regard to their attraction towards humans or their desire for a human relationship.
Hentai is a popular genre of pornography based on anime, a style of animation that originated in Japan. Although many studies have examined psychological factors related to the consumption of pornography, little research has been conducted that specifically looks at hentai. Study author Jonathan Park told PsyPost that his interest in Japanese culture helped to spark his desire to study the topic.
“Like many weebs and otakus, I love anime, doujinshi, anime music, anime video games, and waifus,” the researcher explained. “As for the pornography side of things, I, like many people, got into hentai and human pornography when I was a young teenager. But, despite that, many academics and guest speakers I have listened to on pornography almost always try to avoid talking about hentai. So when I got the opportunity to do my undergraduate thesis, I ended up combining the two things.”
The study was based on survey responses from 208 participants who were 20.90 years old on average. Approximately 29% had consumed hentai in the past year, 38% had consumed non-hentai pornography in the past year, and 33% had not consumed any pornography in the past year. Unsurprisingly, hentai consumers rated images of anime characters as more attractive than non-hentai and non-porn consumers. But hentai consumers did not rate images of real people as any more or less attractive than non-hentai or non-porn consumers.
Similarly, hentai consumers reported a greater desire to be in a romantic relationship with an anime character. But their desire to be in a romantic relationship with a real person was similar to the other groups.
“The scores on attractiveness and romantic desire towards real humans did not significantly differ across all three pornography consumer types. Thus, developing stronger attraction and romantic desire towards anime characters may be unique to hentai but not human pornography,” the researchers said.
Park and his colleagues had expected that hentai consumers would score higher on attachment avoidance, a relationship attachment style characterized by emotional detachment. But hentai consumers did not differ from non-hentai or non-porn consumers on avoidant attachment. However, female (but not male) hentai consumers tended to have higher levels of anxious attachment compared to female non-porn consumers. In other words, female hentai consumers were more likely to agree with statements such as “I worry about being abandoned.”
The findings highlight the importance of differentiating human pornography from hentai pornography. In previous research, “many researchers weren’t separating hentai from human pornography in their definitions, methods, and analyses,” Park said. “As someone who consumes hentai-related media, it’s difficult to know if many recent findings from pornography studies relate to people who consume hentai or those who don’t. This is important because hentai has been one of the most popular types of pornography in the world for years.”
“If two large and different populations of people (e.g., hentai consumers vs non-hentai consumers) differ on something as obvious as their attraction and romantic desire towards anime characters, then they probably also differ on more complex and nuanced attributes and behaviors,” he explained. “For example, long-time hentai fans are more likely to search for doujinshi than people who only watch human porn and have no idea what doujinshi is. In saying that, our study doesn’t even separate the many different types of hentai and porn fetishes out there (e.g., cosplay, insect, guro, x-ray, etc). This study was just one attempt at separating hentai from human pornography, so obviously, we couldn’t account for everything.”
The findings from several studies, such as investigations of problematic pornography use, may or may not apply to consumers of hentai, the researchers warned.
“Every day, millions of people all around the world consume anime and hentai media (e.g., gambling to win sexy anime characters, watching Vtubers, listening to anime music, buying lewd anime scale figures, buying anime body pillows, daydreaming about being in the anime world, playing anime dating simulator video games, and so on). Also, so many people now have their careers dictated by anime and hentai,” Park told PsyPost.
“Despite all that, I don’t understand why researchers aren’t doing more research on how anime and hentai influences people’s behaviors and thoughts. The lack of knowledge on the psychological impact of hentai and anime on people has led to some unreasonably severe consequences. For example, some countries have made hentai and certain anime illegal. Hopefully, more people will do research on hentai/anime, improve upon the study we did, and find some incredible things. This research field is a literal goldmine.”
The study, “The differentiation between consumers of hentai pornography and human pornography“, was authored by Jonathan I. Park, Mehmet K. Mahmut, and Anna Blomkvist.
