Anti-pornography Narratives as Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Religious Variation in the Effect that Pornography Viewing has on the Marital Happiness of Husbands

Abstract

Using a mixed methods design that compares quantitative content analysis of popular religious magazines with statistical analysis of national survey data, we show how the anti-pornography narratives that are predominant within different religious traditions can influence the effect that pornography viewing has on the marital happiness of husbands within those traditions. More specifically, we propose a causal chain that explains how meso-level anti-pornography narratives can influence micro-level pornography-effect scripts and, in turn, influence the effect that pornography viewing has on the marital happiness of husbands. We suggest, then, that this kind of causal chain can be thought of as a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. However, instead of operating exclusively at the micro-level as self-fulfilling prophecies have typically been theorized as doing, we apply the notion of the self-fulfilling prophecy to the meso-level, so that rather than just considering how individual thinking can lead to individual outcomes, we also consider how collective thinking can lead to collective outcomes.