Pornography and attitude change

Abstract

Sexual arousal to erotica (Levitt, 1969) has long been the concern of several organized groups in our society. Various legislative bodies have, as a result of prodding from some of their constituents, reacted to this phenomenon by passing various laws. These acts are generally directed toward the definition and control of sexual arousal and toward the control of the stimulus materials which are presumed to promote the arousal states. In passing such legislation, legislatures have made several assumptions, the more important being: 1. Sexual arousal not in the service of reproduction is a social problem. 2. Sexual arousal to certain classes of stimuli is somehow qualitatively different from arousal due to other classes. 3. Exposure to certain classes of visual stimuli causes a decline in morals and an ensuring increase in antisocial ideation. These assumptions have been made, in the past, so as to justify such anti-obscenity measures as book-burning, boycotts, and legal controls. Of the latter, it has been said that: The very fact that every state, except one, as well as the federal government have passed some form of censorship law with respect to pornography is itself testimony independently given by many people over a long period of time that pornography does have some sort of influence. (Schmidt, 1957) Implied here is that obscenity does influence morals, behavior, or both, and that the various levels of government are acting upon evidence of this influence so as to protect the well-being of the people. The empirical evidence relating to the assumptions listed above, which are implicit in all obscenity statutes, was reviewed by Cairns, et al, (1961-1962) for the period 1925 to 1961. They found no direct test of the central assumption the causal relationship between exposure to obscene materials and anti-social behavior. A similar finding has been reported by Mann (1968). He reviewed the relevant literature for the period 1961 to 1968. Both authors reported that while sexual arousal may be induced by many diverse kinds of stimuli,