pornography, psychology, addiction, attractionGiven the visibility of issues surrounding body image in modern society, numerous sources have claimed that watching pornography, or at least watching excessive amounts of pornography, can reduce a person’s attraction or responsiveness to real partners.
Is there any evidence that this is true, that watching pornography can affect your ability to respond in sexual scenarios? And if so, do types/genres/styles of porn alter the effect, and does this process impact male and female viewers equally?
We call it Pornography Addiction. We know that men consume much more porn than women. Studies and general polls suggest that by percent, for every man that watches porn at least once weekly, there's one woman that doesn't. This means that with so many more men doing it, it's more likely that a man will succumb to this addiction.
It has been known to cause relationship issues from a lack of sexual interest, a general loss of affection, and may even interfere with work and extracurricular activities. I don't know of any studies that have proven which genre is more common, but if I had to place a bet, I would say that those that engage in the highest risk factors are the "most addictive" types.
This means, the more likely it is that it would end a relationship or put the user in jail, the more likely it is to cause addiction. I don't really even feel like I should be posting a list here, but think about the worst possible porn that you would never watch because it's repulsive. Someone out there right now is probably addicted to it.
Even worse, if you watched such a video for a minute, you might even want to watch more of it. It's a sort of reverse psychology effect, where the more taboo/repulsive something is, the more likely you are to be fascinated by it, or even addicted. I don't know the technical term for this, but I've seen it plenty enough to know that it exists and is a very powerful mechanism.
Left untreated, it tends to get worse, not better, so therapy can often prevent this total loss of sexual attraction for a specific partner/real people. Note that this is rarely what could be considered permanent. It can generally be corrected with therapy, group sessions, and so on.
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