Recent academic research on pornography and healthy sexual development

Abstract

The key findings from this project are that, although we can identify thousands of pieces of academic research about pornography’s effects, surprisingly little of it explores relationships between aspects of healthy sexual development and consumption of pornography. A lack of agreement about what is being measured, including about the definition of pornography, has led to confusion. In addition, much of the relevant research we identified on the relationship between consumption of pornography and aspects of healthy sexual development misinterpreted correlation as indicating causality. A review of recent literature published since the end of the systematic reviews shows that, in most of the areas under consideration, little has changed. However, recent qualitative research into pornography consumption and porn literacy has found evidence that consumers – particularly women – develop their expertise in understanding pornography through greater consumption. It is also the case that recent qualitative research has shown that female consumers experience an ambivalent relationship with the sexual pleasure they gain from consuming pornography. We note that this book has not explored work on pornography addiction as evidence suggests that this is primarily a moral problem for people who feel sexual shame, rather than a direct aspect of healthy sexual development.