“Whosoever Looketh on a Person to Lust After Them”: Religiosity, the Use of Mainstream and Nonmainstream Sexually Explicit Material, and Sexual Satisfaction in Heterosexual Men and Women

Abstract

While previous research has generally found that religiosity is associated with negative attitudes toward sexually explicit material (SEM) and a lower frequency of SEM use, no studies have examined the relationship between SEM type and religiosity. In addition, it is unknown how the interrelations between religiosity and type and frequency of SEM use influence the relationship between SEM use and sexual satisfaction. Here, associations among a multi-item religiosity scale (consisting of measures of self-reported faith in God, religious services attendance, and the religiosity of the respondent’s social network), SEM use, type of preferred SEM, and sexual satisfaction were explored using a large online sample of Croatian adults (N = 2,580). In both men and women, religiosity was associated with less frequent SEM use and more SEM-negative attitudes. Guilty feelings following SEM use and SEM-negative attitudes fully mediated the association between religiosity and SEM use among women and partially mediated the relationship for men. Religiosity was also negatively correlated with women’s nonmainstream SEM use. For women, religiosity significantly moderated the association between SEM use and sexual satisfaction, as well as the relationship between nonmainstream SEM use and sexual satisfaction. In line with the erotic plasticity theory, the findings suggest that religiosity affects SEM use and related sexual satisfaction more substantially among women than men.