There’s been quite the buzz surrounding the idea that porn is bad for sexual health in recent months, wouldn’t you agree? You know, all those claims that porn causes erectile dysfunction, leads to breakups, causes hairy palms, etc. All that fun stuff.
But the thing is, most of these claims are fairly inconsistent, so we don’t know what the hell we’re supposed to believe. In an effort to help clear the air, Esquire UK put together an informative compilation of these studies, and boy oh boy. You are in for a wild ride.
Here, four surprising porn findings that you need to know about:
1. Desensitization to porn
In the most tragic news ever, a recent study by the Max Planck Institute in Berlin found that watching porn seems to shrink the reward center of your brain, leaving you less satisfied each time you go on PornHub. We’re so, so sorry.
“We therefore assume that subjects with high pornography consumption require even stronger stimuli to reach the same reward level,” says Simone Kühn, lead author of the study, suggesting the more porn you watch, the more vulgar, graphic porn you need in order to get off.
But just how graphic can porn get? Surely there’s a limit to how nasty and dirty the human imagination can get when creating a porno. Or is there…? Hmm…
Anyway, if porn desensitization is a real thing, that really sucks, because nobody wants to be disappointed in life, especially by porn. But wait – there’s still hope!
The researchers pointed out that “It’s not clear whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn.”
So, this study appears to be inconclusive. No need for panic just yet.
2. Erectile performance
First, they said porn is horrible for men’s sexual health and causes erectile dysfunction. Then, they said that porn is actually good for men’s sexual health, and has no effect on your ability to get it up. Well, that’s confusing. Which is it??
In one study that analyzed the porn habits and sexual function of 280 men, researchers found that porn is, in fact, good for sexual function! Yay! Finally, some concrete answers.
The study revealed that “Those who reported watching more porn each week reported greater arousal than those who watched less porn.
Thus, contrary to the claims that some have made about porn use causing a habituation or desensitization response (i.e., diminishing levels of arousal with repeated pornography exposure), porn use was actually linked to enhanced arousal to sexual stimuli in this study.”
The study also found that there was absolutely no correlation between the amount of porn men watch and how well their dicks work, proving that all that nonsense about porn leading to erectile dysfunction is utter bullshit. Case closed.
3. Impact on relationships
In a recent study, a team of researchers believe that watching porn by yourself is bad for your relationship, and will probably lead to you getting your porn-loving ass dumped. Aww.
The study found that “Married people who start watching porn are twice as likely to be divorced in the following years as those who don’t.” Well, then.
However, the researchers pointed out that watching porn is only bad for your relationship if you do it alone, which means you should make this a group activity and watch porn with your lady. After all, sharing is caring.
4. Porn addiction
You’ve probably seen the phrase “porn addiction” countless times, but is porn addiction even a real thing?
A 2015 study suggests that it’s actually not, and that America is simply having a grand time blowing things out of proportion and plastering labels on fun activities like watching porn regularly.
“Perceived addiction to Internet pornography predicted psychological distress above and beyond pornography use itself,” the report says, suggesting you should stop thinking about whether you’re addicted to porn or not, and just enjoy it.
Moreover, a recent Danish study looked at how porn affected Danish men and women in terms of their sexual knowledge, attitudes towards sex, attitudes toward the opposite sex, sex life, and general quality of life. The results showed that “many young Danish adults believe that pornography has had primarily a positive effect on various aspects of their lives.”
There you go. Porn is good for you, so it’s best to go with the flow and watch porn when you want. But if you’re calling in sick to work to stay home and jerk off, then that’s a different story.
H/T: Esquire UK