The sexual effects of pornography on intimacy and relationships observe some of the most gendered differences. Men and women differ in how they are impacted by pornography on the psychological and behavioral levels, both within and beyond a romantic or sexual relationship. However, pornography can function as an
educational resource for individuals to improve their sexual knowledge, and women who consume pornography more regularly experience increased desire for sexual activity, indicating that pornography might be useful as a form of foreplay.
Sexual desire Sexual desire is one of the factors that have an impact on the gender differences the most. In general, men experience the most acute effects from pornography in terms of sexual desire. Straight men report less sexual desire, both for their partner and in general, directly after consuming pornography. Among women, there is some evidence that women who view pornography feel more positively about expressing their sexual desires. Women may express more sexual attraction specifically for their partner on days when they watch pornography. A 2021 systematic review of 44 articles within the past 5 years found "that there is little evidence for simplistic narratives in public or scientific spheres that describe pornography use as universally good or bad for sexual functioning outcomes." The researchers state "In some situations, pornography use is associated with greater sexual functioning and greater sexual satisfaction, and in other cases it seems to be associated with lower sexual functioning and lower sexual satisfaction," and that "mere pornography use itself was most often not associated with sexual functioning in either direction, but self-reported problematic use of pornography was consistently associated with more sexual functioning problems. A 2024 review shows that evidence is lacking for pornography induced sexual dysfunction, but a small percentage of its users might be affected (2-8%). A 2026 review shows that simple pornography consumption does not cause erectile dysfunction, the relationship between pornography and ED being much more complex.
Sexual satisfaction Despite the lack of evidence for more physical issues with sexual function, pornography is correlated with lower sexual desire and sexual satisfaction (there are significant, but very low correlations). However, a causal link has not been established. It may be that causation is reversed and lower sexual satisfaction drives pornography use. In the same analysis, the authors found no consistent overall link between women's pornography consumption and elements of satisfaction studied to date, though noted that "If women's satisfaction in these domains is positively or negatively affected, it likely occurs within specific subgroups that have been less frequently studied or under circumstances not yet identified." In contrast, they found that "Men as a group, on the other hand, do demonstrate lower sexual and relational satisfaction (but apparently not self and body satisfaction) as a function of their pornography consumption. While there may be a reciprocal element to these dynamics (i.e., lower sexual and relational satisfaction leading to pornography consumption), the convergence of results across cross-sectional survey, longitudinal survey, and experimental results points to an overall negative effect of pornography on men's sexual and relational satisfaction."
Sexual violence Controlled studies A controlled study describes the relationship between given behaviors or environmental conditions and health effects in a laboratory setting in which conditions other than those under study are effectively held constant across groups of participants receiving various levels of the experimental condition(s). The findings of the experiments were unable to be generalized outside of the field of the experiments. However, explanations of said studies are still required to prove their importance for understanding the subject matter. This is especially true when it comes to health consequences. The link between pornography and sexual aggression has been the subject of multiple
meta-analyses. Meta-analyses conducted in the 1990s by Allen et al. suggested to researchers that there might not be an association of any kind between pornography and rape supportive attitudes in non-experimental studies. However, a meta-analysis by Hald, Malamuth and Yuen (2000) suggests that there is a link between consumption of violent pornography and rape-supportive attitudes in certain populations of men, particularly when moderating variables are taken into consideration. A literature review by Ferguson and Hartley in 2009 argued that it would be wise to let go of the notion that pornography contributes to increased sexual assault behavior. The authors stated that the experts of some studies tended to highlight positive findings while de-emphasizing null findings. They would then conclude that controlled studies, on balance, were not able to support links between pornography and sexual violence. A 2019 systematic review by Marshall and Miller examined research conducted over the previous decade on the relationship between pornography use and sexual coercion. They concluded "Researchers have, in part, answered the call and provided ample evidence that pornography use and sexual coercion are in fact related, but until the field moves beyond a correlative understanding of this relationship, practical implications are limited." They also stated that research on pornography use is highly heterogeneous, with inconsistent methodologies and varying definitions that limit synthesis through meta-analyses, and recommended that future studies adopt standardized definitions to better clarify its effects. Ferguson and Hartley updated their review with a 2020 meta-analysis. This meta-analysis concluded that mainstream pornography could not be linked to sexual violence and was associated with reductions in sexual violence at the societal level. Small correlations were found between violent porn viewing and sexual aggression, but evidence was unable to differentiate whether this was a causal or selection effect (i.e. sexual offenders seeking out violent porn). In a 2021 review of studies, Rothman states "five studies found that the sexual violence perpetrators had seen less pornography than other criminals". The relation between sexual fantasies and committing offenses is not a simple one and there is not enough backing evidence to link violent pornography as the cause of rape.
Epidemiological studies An
epidemiological study describes the association between given behaviors or environmental conditions, and physical or psychological health by means of observation of real-world phenomena through statistical data. Epidemiological studies would generally be useful in describing real life events outside of the experimental field but would have a weak correlation with cause and effect relationships between specific behaviors and the health consequences. In 1998
Milton Diamond from the University of Hawaii noted that in Japan, the number of reported cases of child sex abuse dropped markedly after the ban on sexually explicit materials was lifted in 1969; however, in Denmark and Sweden, there was a very slight increase in reported rapes after the liberalization of their pornography laws during the same time period, which scientists attribute to a higher awareness of what amounts to sex abuse. Some researchers argue that there is a correlation between pornography and a decrease of sex crimes.
The effects of Pornography: An International Perspective was an epidemiological study which found that the massive growth of the pornography industry in the United States between 1975 and 1995 was accompanied by a substantial decrease in the number of sexual assaults per capita – and reported similar results for Japan. Malamuth's work describes Check (1984), who found among a diverse sample of
Canadian men that more exposure to pornography led to higher acceptance of
rape myths, violence against women, and general sexual callousness. In another study, Briere, Corne, Runtz and Neil M. Malamuth, (1984) reported similar correlations in a sample involving college males. On the other hand, the failure to find a statistically significant correlation in another previous study led Malamuth to examine other interesting correlations, which took into account the information about
sexuality the samples obtained in their childhood, and pornography emerged as the second most important source of information. A 2019 study from the Archives of Sexual behavior on Teen Dating Violence (TDV) found that both males and females are perpetrators in different regards. Males would more often engage in Sexual TDV, while females would more often engage in Physical and Emotional TDV. The Study mentions the analysis of two separate frameworks. One is the
Confluence model of Sexual aggression, in which it details porn being the one that influences boys to be sexually aggressive. It works significantly towards the males that have fragile masculinity and the ones that are more sexually promiscuous. The other framework is the script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization. This framework suggests that behavior towards sexual encounters is acquired through "scripts" that people get from viewing pornographic content. These actions, often negative, will then be mirrored. This will result in more sexual and teen dating violence. A 2024 review found a correlation between pornography consumption (especially
sado-masochistic pornography) and violence, but stated that the causality of the association remains unclear and that its own results have to be interpreted with caution, due to the heterogeneity of the research examined. == Effects on relationships ==