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Pornography’s Immediate Effect on Relationship Satisfaction
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by Mary E. Butler, F. Richard Ferraro*, and Jeffery E. Holm - University of North Dakota
There is a persistent belief that viewing pornography
has a wide range of negative consequences, but recent research has
also indicated positive effects. The purpose of this experiment was
to study the immediate effect of pornography on relationship
satisfaction. The experimenters randomly assigned participants
(N = 98) to one of three groups: Group 1 viewed neutral images of
people, Group 2 viewed pornographic images, and Group 3 viewed
images of scenery. Immediately after viewing the images, participants
answered questions about their relationship and sexual satisfaction.
In general, results indicated that participant responses did not differ
among the three groups for either relationship or sexual satisfaction;
however, an interaction existed in the sexual satisfaction subscales
between gender and group assignment. Men and women indicated
sexual dissatisfaction on different subscales depending on their
group assignment. The results also indicated gender differences
among pornography viewing and sexual satisfaction responses.
Fall 2011 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 16, No. 3, p. 113), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2011, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.