Pornography

The question of how pornography affects human behaviors and attitudes has been a considerable source of controversy and public concern. Opponents of pornography believe it encourages immorality, sexual violence, and negative attitudes toward women, while defenders see pornography for adults as a harmless diversion that may serve to relieve sexual tensions.

Because violent pornography is generally considered more harmful than nonviolent material, the prevalence of violent pornography has become a central issue in considering the overall effects of pornography. However, the findings are inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. Some investigators claim that up to 10 percent of all pornography depicts sexual violence, whereas others maintain that the proportion is as low as 1 percent.

The 1986 U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography concluded that violent pornography “bears a causal relationship to antisocial acts of sexual violence” and that degrading pornography “bears some causal relationship” to violence, sexual aggression, and negative attitudes, such as the myth that women enjoy being raped. Research conducted on subjects (usually male college students) in carefully controlled laboratory settings has provided some support for this assessment of violent pornography, but less support for the commission’s conclusions about nonviolent degrading pornography. To isolate the influence of different factors, experimenters typically expose groups of men to one of four types of films: violent and sexually explicit, violent but not sexually explicit, sexually explicit but not violent, and neither sexually explicit nor violent. After exposure to the films, experimenters often measure subjects’ aggression by testing their willingness to administer simulated shocks to a female colleague of the researchers.

Studies indicate that men who viewed films that were both violent and sexually explicit recorded the highest levels of aggression, followed by those who viewed sexually explicit but nonviolent films. Men record the highest levels of aggression after viewing pornography that portrays women as being sexually aroused by the violence perpetrated against them. According to American researchers Edward Donnerstein, Daniel Lenz, and Steven Penrod, “It is this unique feature of violent pornography—the presentation of the idea that women find sexual violence arousing—that plays an important role in producing violent pornography’s effects.” However, studies have found little correlation between purely erotic nonviolent films and violence or aggression against women.

Although research provides some support for the view that violent pornography is harmful, critics advise caution about these findings for several reasons. First, the evidence shows only correlation between two factors and does not prove that one causes the other. Second, laboratory experiments are done in artificial settings and do not necessarily reflect behavior in the real world. Subjects who behave aggressively in the laboratory do not expect negative consequences as they might in the real world, and subjects might perceive that experimenters condone or even encourage aggression. Also, subjects might not believe that they are inflicting real harm. Third, some studies have demonstrated that the effects of violent pornography usually wear off once subjects leave the lab, suggesting a transient effect. Finally, no studies have measured the long-term effects of exposure to pornography. These long-term studies are necessary before researchers can adequately assess the effects of pornography.

In summary, some evidence exists that exposure to violent pornography, and perhaps also to degrading pornography, causes violence and aggression against women. However, the evidence is inconclusive, and other studies have found no such effects.