“Adding fuel to the fire”? Does exposure to non-consenting adult or to child pornography increase risk of sexual aggression?

Abstract

This article is the first to integrate the vast research literatures on non-consenting adult and on child pornography (also a form of non-consenting pornography) by using the framework of the Confluence Model of sexual aggression. In contrast to the contradictory conclusions reached by various reviewers and commentators who have typically emphasized a particular methodology or parts of the literature, this review finds a great deal of consistency and convergence among the differing methodologies and literatures that have examined the impact of pornography on individuals. It is concluded that pornography use may add to the risk of sexual aggression only for those men already predisposed to aggress sexually due to more primary causes than pornography use.

EXPOsing Men's Gender Role Attitudes as Porn Superfans

“…In examining empirical research on attitudes of porn viewers, viewing porn regularly has been linked with a number of attitudes fostering gender inequality, violence, and/or objectification of women (Demar e, Lips, and Briere 1993). On the one hand, both experimental-and survey-based studies find pornography use runs parallel to hostile masculinity, producing antiwoman sexual aggression (Demar e, Briere, and Lips 1988;Hald and Malamuth 2008;Hald, Malamuth, and Carlin 2010;Hald, Malamuth, and Lange 2013;Kingston et al 2009;Malamuth 2018;Malamuth et al 1995;Malamuth et al 2000;Murnen, Wright, and Kaluzny 2002;Wright and Tokunaga 2015;Wright, Tokunaga, and Kraus 2016). This builds on early experimental studies on exposure to pornography that found decreased support for the women's liberation movement (Zillmann andBryant 1982, 1984) or correlations dependent on the coerciveness or violence in the porn media (Demar e et al 1988;Demar e et al 1993;Garcia 1986;Hald et al 2013).…”

“…Much of the research on pornography is situated within what McCormack and Wignall () refer to as a “negative effects paradigm” to study sexual aggression or objectification, and relies on small samples of porn viewers, or larger samples of specific populations (e.g., college students), to measure effects and individual attitudes through lab‐based experiments or correlating pornography use with mediating variables leading to sexual aggression (Kingston et al. ; Malamuth ; Malamuth, Addison, and Koss ; Malamuth et al. ; McKee ; McNair ; Murnen, Wright, and Kaluzny ; Paul and Shim ).…”

“…On the one hand, both experimental‐ and survey‐based studies find pornography use runs parallel to hostile masculinity, producing antiwoman sexual aggression (Demaré, Briere, and Lips ; Hald and Malamuth ; Hald, Malamuth, and Carlin ; Hald, Malamuth, and Lange ; Kingston et al. ; Malamuth ; Malamuth et al. ; Malamuth et al.…”

“…Despite more than four decades of pornography research, there has been relatively little research directly measuring gender-role attitudes, and even less that compares attitudes of pornography consumers with the general population. Much of the research on pornography is situated within what McCormack and Wignall (2017) refer to as a "negative effects paradigm" to study sexual aggression or objectification, and relies on small samples of porn viewers, or larger samples of specific populations (e.g., college students), to measure effects and individual attitudes through lab-based experiments or correlating pornography use with mediating variables leading to sexual aggression (Kingston et al 2009;Malamuth 2018;Malamuth, Addison, and Koss 2000;Malamuth et al 1995;McKee 2012;McNair 2014;Murnen, Wright, and Kaluzny 2002;Paul and Shim 2008).…”

Testing the content progression thesis: A longitudinal assessment of pornography use and preference for coercive and violent content among male adolescents

“…Although probably as well-known in the field as the Confluence Model-which, despite its shortcomings (see Baer et al, 2015), has been repeatedly shown to predict the target behavior (Malamuth and Hald, 2017;Malamuth, 2018)-the CPT is supported by surprisingly little evidence. While it remains influential in the current discussions over the existence and phenomenology of pornography addiction (Ley et al, 2014;Shor and Seida, 2018), the CPT seems to fail as a conceptual framework to clarify ramifications of adolescent pornography use.…”