Recent research published in The Journal of Sex Research has uncovered intriguing findings about how different types of pornographic content are related to sexual satisfaction and function among young adults. The findings indicate that while pornography themed around passion and romance is linked to higher sexual satisfaction, content focusing on power, control, and rough sex tends to be linked to lower sexual satisfaction and function, particularly among cisgender men.
Pornography is widely accessible and forms a significant part of many adults’ sexual experiences. While previous research has shown mixed outcomes on sexual satisfaction and function, these studies primarily focused on the frequency of pornography use without considering the nature of the content. The vast array of sexual themes in pornography, ranging from romantic and consenting acts to more aggressive or non-consensual scenarios, prompted researchers to explore how these different themes potentially affect users.
“Pornography use is often blamed in popular media to explain sexual dissatisfactions and sexual dysfunctions. However, results related to the relationship between pornography use and sexuality are mixed,” explained study author Marie-Chloé Nolin, a PhD student at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and member of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel’s SAIL Lab.
“As a diversity of pornographic contents is available on pornographic websites and experts in the field have suggested to examine the context in which the pornography is used to shed light on the mixed findings, we chose to examine the associations between the frequency of use of different contents and sexuality.”
Researchers conducted the study using a convenience sample of 827 young adults, varying in age from 17 to 30 years, who were recruited through university email lists, advertisements on Kijiji (a popular classified advertising platform), and targeted social media campaigns on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Once recruited, participants were directed to complete an online survey. This survey was part of a larger longitudinal study focusing on digital technologies and intimate relationships among adolescents and young adults. The survey was designed to be comprehensive, including sections that assessed sociodemographic characteristics, detailed pornography use habits, sexual satisfaction, and sexual function.
The frequency of masturbation was also recorded and used as a control variable in the analysis to differentiate the effects of pornography use from other sexual behaviors that might influence sexual satisfaction and function.
The researchers found that men were more likely to view almost all types of content more frequently than women, except for power, control, and rough sex pornography, which saw no significant difference in consumption rates between genders. This indicates a potential shift in the traditional understanding of gender preferences for pornography, suggesting that aggressive content is not more appealing to men than women as often presumed.
Passion and romance pornography was highly popular, with the highest usage reported by cisgender men (83.06%) and gender-/sex-diverse individuals (83.33%), and a significant prevalence among cisgender women (56.97%). This type of content typically involves scenarios that depict intimacy, mutual pleasure, and emotional connections, which might resonate more with positive sexual values and expectations.
Multipartner sex pornography also showed substantial usage across genders, particularly among cisgender men (78.07%) and gender-/sex-diverse individuals (75.00%), and less so among cisgender women (45.41%). Taboo and forbidden sex content was most favored by cisgender men (84.05%), showing high engagement from gender-/sex-diverse individuals (75.00%) and considerably lower usage by cisgender women (31.47%).
Power, control, and rough sex pornography had moderate popularity, with the highest usage among gender-/sex-diverse individuals (62.50%), followed by cisgender men (39.20%) and cisgender women (29.28%).
Importantly, the researcher found a positive association between the consumption of passion and romance-themed pornography and higher sexual satisfaction across all participants, regardless of gender. Individuals who frequently watch this type of pornography might experience an enhancement in their sexual satisfaction, possibly because these themes align better with real-life sexual experiences that are consensual and pleasure-focused.
In contrast, pornography that included themes of power, control, and rough sex was associated with lower sexual satisfaction. Such content often involves dominance, aggression, and sometimes non-consensual acts, which might lead to unrealistic or harmful sexual expectations. These themes could also induce feelings of guilt or discomfort due to a mismatch between the depicted acts and personal moral values or real-life sexual preferences.
Regarding sexual function, the researchers found a significant negative relationship with power, control, and rough sex pornography among cisgender men. This finding suggests that viewing aggressive or coercive sexual content could potentially distort men’s sexual expectations or desensitize their emotional response to normal sexual activities, leading to difficulties in achieving sexual arousal or satisfaction during partnered sex.
Passion and romance pornography, on the other hand, was unrelated to sexual function, which might suggest that the content that aligns more closely with real-life sexual behavior does not negatively influence sexual health.
“The use of passion and romance pornography (i.e., romantic place, romantic sex or couple having sex, massage, and mutual masturbation) was associated with higher sexual satisfaction, while the use of power, control and rough sex pornography (i.e., sadomasochism, bondage and domination, spanking, and rape/sexual assault) was associated with lower sexual satisfaction,” Nolin told PsyPost.
“Cisgender men’s use of power, control and rough sex pornography was associated with lower sexual function (i.e., more difficulties related to sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm). These results could be explained by how using specific pornographic contents creates sexual expectations that can vary in their levels of realism or of how actually satisfying they can be when recreated with a partner.”
But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. “Given the correlational design, no causal inference can be made,” Nolin noted. “For example, this means that we do not know if people who use more power, control and rough sex pornography are less sexually satisfied because of their pornography use or if people who are less satisfied turn to this type of content to cope with their dissatisfactions.”
Additionally, the sample, though diverse, primarily consisted of young adults and may not represent older age groups or varying cultural backgrounds.
Future studies should look to longitudinal designs to better understand the directionality of these relationships and expand the diversity of participants. Researchers could also explore other contextual factors that influence the relationship between pornography use and sexual outcomes, such as relationship status, the presence of a sexual partner during consumption, and individual psychological traits.
The study, “Associations Between Contents of Pornography and Sexual Satisfaction and Function Among Young Adults,” was authored by Marie-Chloé Nolin, Marie-Ève Daspe, Beáta Bőthe, Audrey Brassard, Christian Joyal, and Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel.