Repeated Exposure to Online Pornographic Material and its
Influence on Opposite Sex Interpersonal Attraction
INTRODUCTION
The average American child is first exposed
to pornographic images online when they are
twelve years old (UCLA, 2003). The
accessibility, affordability, and anonymity
presented by the internet has allowed for
young viewers to be exposed both
unintentionally and intentionally to
pornographic material, often years before
their first sexual encounter. I intend to
demonstrate through a qualitative thematic
analysis of comments posted on the NoFap
subreddit that this exposure to pornographic
material has profound effects on the way
people especially young heterosexual boys
and men approach sexual situations,
interpersonal communication interactions,
and how they experience and enact
interpersonal attraction to women (Hooks,
B., 2004).
RQ: How does repeated intentional
exposure to internet pornographic videos
alter the way heterosexual men and boys
(ages 18+) experience interpersonal
attraction towards girls and women?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Brand, M., Laier, C., Pawlikowski, M., Schchtle,
U., Schler, T., & Altsttter-Gleich, C. (2011).
Watching pornographic pictures on the Internet:
Role of sexual arousal ratings and psychological
psychiatric symptoms for using Internet sex sites
excessively. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 14(6), p. 371-377.
In a sample of 89 heterosexual male participants, the
global symptom severity of internet pornography
addiction, as well as interpersonal sensitivity,
depression, paranoid thinking, and psychoticism, were
correlated with the Internet Addiction Test score
(Brand et. al., 2011, 375).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Smith, E. R., Byrne, D., & Fielding, P. J. (1995).
Interpersonal attraction as a function of extreme gender
role adherence. Personal Relationships, 2(2), p. 161-172.
Men were found to respond more positively to women who
scored similarly on the scales measuring gender
hypertraditionality; women evaluated similar men more
positively as well (Smith, Byrne, and Fielding, p. 167).
Mulac, A., Jansma, L., & Linz, D. (2002). Men's
behavior toward women after viewing sexually-explicit
films: Degradation makes a difference. Communication
Monographs, 69(4), p. 311-328.
The behavior of the men who were exposed to a sexual film
were coded as more dominant to their female partner; they
also displayed greater anxiety, more often ignored the
intellectual contributions of their partner, and touched their
partner more, but looked at her face and body less (Mulac et.
al., p.322).
Bridges, A. J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C., &
Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and sexual behavior in
best-selling pornography videos: A content analysis
update. Violence Against Women, 16(10), p. 1065-1085.
Bridges and colleagues (2010) analyzed the content of 304
popular pornographic videos; 88.2% of the scenes analyzed
contained physical aggression, including spanking,
gagging, and slapping; 48.7% of the scenes analyzed
contained verbal aggression (Bridges, et. al., p. 1075).
Within the scenes analyzed, the most common perpetrator of
both verbal and physical aggression was the male, while the
receivers of the aggression were female (Bridges et. al., p.
1076).
As displayed below, Yuan, et al. (2011) found that grey
matter volume changes and white matter fractional
anisotropy changes in adolescents with pornography
addiction. Grey and white matter in the brain make up
the central nervous system; grey matter serves to process
information in the brain.
IAD Subject Control Subject
METHODS
Qualitative thematic content analysis of the
NoFap subreddit, an online support forum for
men struggling with pornography addiction.
Open coding of 100 comments.
Comments must be 25 words or more.
Analyzing comments and identifying themes
within the collected data.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Currently, I am analyzing and identifying themes
within the collected data. The coding categories
utilized in identifying themes are as follows:
changing interpersonal attraction tendencies
(loss of interest in sex, loss of interest in women,
and loss of communication skills),
objectification, increased symptoms of
depression, increased symptoms of ADHD,
increased symptoms of hostility, and increased
communication dominance behaviors (other-
directed eye gaze, proximity, touch, and
interruptions).
ABOUT ME
Kelly Highum is a graduating senior at Winona
State University. She plans on attending graduate
school in order to gain her Ph.D. in Economic and
Political Sociology, and plans to continue her
research concentration of economic systems and
their influence on human behavior.