But What’s Your Partner up to? Associations between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use within the Couple

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that pornography use harms relationships. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by examining an alternative explanatory mechanism for the associations between pornography use and relationship dysfunction. In contrast to dominant exposure-based explanations in this field, we argue instead that the apparent negative “impact” of pornography use on relationship quality may be the product of partner similarity or differences in pornography use behavior. Independent of any direct causal effect of sexual media, we would expect that negative relationship functioning should be more prominent among couples who are dissimilar in their pornography use, because dissimilarity in this behavior suggests broader dissimilarity in sexual interests, preferences, and values. To this end, we sought to test whether dyadic patterns of pornography use, and related attributes, were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction in two cross-sectional (N = 407; n1 = 200; n3 = 207) and two longitudinal (N2 = 77; N4 = 529) samples of heterosexual couples. Across studies, results indicated that shared pornography use and partner similarity in solitary pornography use relative to dissimilarity in solitary pornography use were both associated with better sexual satisfaction and to a lesser extent, relationship satisfaction. Further consideration of potential explanatory mechanisms for these associations established comparable patterns of results for similarity-dissimilarity in attitudes towards pornography, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual preferences, and sex drive. Importantly, only similarity-dissimilarity in sex drive statistically accounted for the effects of similarity-dissimilarity in solitary pornography use. These findings demonstrate that links between pornography use and relationship health are partially a function of different dyadic patterns of pornography use within couples, a pattern of results that is difficult to account for with traditional exposure-based theories of the impact of pornography.

A Re-Examination of the Sexual Opinion Survey

“…Another study suggests not only that partners tend to be similar in their levels of erotophobia-erotophilia, but that individuals with higher levels of erotophilia can better estimate their partner's sexual satisfaction (Smith et al, 1993). Similarly, other findings in this area have indicated that couple members who both hold more erotophilic attitudes are more likely to have concordant solitary or shared pornography use, which has been shown to correlate positively with interpersonal closeness, comfort with sexual communication, and sexual satisfaction (Kohut et al, 2018;Kohut et al, 2021).Moreover, as sexual and relationship satisfaction are known to be highly correlated (Wincze & Carey, 2001;Byres, 2005), it can be suggested that the knowledge of compatibility in sexual attitudes and practices can be an influential factor in promoting and assessing healthier and more harmonious relationships by therapist and counsellors.…”

Novel Sexual Behavior and Relationship Quality in Long-Term Mixed-Sex Couples

“…While relatively scant, existing research indicates sexual experimentation with shared pornography use, new sexual positions, and the use of sex toys are relatively common among couples (Herbenick et al, 2009;Kohut et al, 2017;Lehmiller et al, 2020;Reece et al, 2009), and that partners who engage in such behaviors together report higher closeness, greater ease in sexual communication, and high sexual and relationship satisfaction (Frederick et al, 2017;Kohut et al, 2018;Lehmiller et al, 2020).…”