Surveying Pornography Use: A Shaky Science Resting on Poor Measurement Foundations

Abstract

A great deal of pornography research relies on dubious measurements. Measurement of pornography use has been highly variable across studies and existing measurement approaches have not been developed using standard psychometric practices nor have they addressed construct validation or reliability. This state of affairs is problematic for the accumulation of knowledge about the nature of pornography use, its antecedents, correlates, and consequences, as it can contribute to inconsistent results across studies and undermine the generalizability of research findings. This article provides a summary of contemporary measurement practices in pornography research accompanied by an explication of the problems therein. It also offers suggestions on how best to move forward by adopting a more limited set of standardized and validated instruments. We recommend that the creation of such instruments be guided by the careful and thorough conceptualization of pornography use and systematic adherence to measurement development principles. the desire to seek out and use pornography or to report such use. Indeed, in the example outlined above, the difference in the estimates provided by Hong et al. (2007) and O'Reilly et al. (2007) may partially reflect differences between Chinese and American students. Sample composition, however, is not the whole story. Large ranges in estimates of pornography use are still reported when comparing studies that are relatively homogenous with respect to sample characteristics. Pornography use estimates restricted to American collegeaged males, for example, suggest variously that 59%

Revisiting the Role of Pornography Use in the Confluence Model Theory of Sexual Aggression

“…Beyond issues related to the Confluence Model specifically, the divergent findings for two operationalizations of pornography use, which were essentially uncorrelated across our studies, should serve as a warning to the field of the non-equivalence of different metrics of pornography use. Such results further underscore the need to adopt common well-validated measures of pornography use across studies to build a cumulative science (Kohut et al, 2019).…”

“…As outlined by Kohut et al (2019), the use of pornographic magazines involves specificand in the current age, quite atypical-pornography acquisition behaviors. For example, one way to obtain pornographic magazines involves visiting a physical location, selecting from a limited number of available options that have been stocked by the retailer, and making a public purchase that communicates to any and all witnesses the sexual interests and intent of the purchaser.…”

“…Critically, moreover, despite causal theorizing regarding pornography's impact on men who are high in HM and IS or related predispositions, Confluence Model studies involving pornography use have largely adopted correlational, not experimental, methodology (Malamuth et al, 2000(Malamuth et al, , 2012. Third variable considerations that can hypothetically account for the role that pornography plays in Confluence Model research (Fisher & Kohut, 2020;Kohut et al, 2019;Kohut, Landripet, & Štulhofer, 2020) have not been systematically ruled out. We note that using an experimental design, Hald and Malamuth (2015) found that experimental exposure to pornography increased attitudes supporting violence against women, but only among men who were low in agreeableness.…”

“…There is a general tendency for behavioral scientists to look down on single item measures due to their assumed loss of reliability compared to multi-item measures. Somewhat paradoxically, the field of pornography research is generally quite critical of this methodological issue, as well, despite the widespread and continuing use of single item assessments (Kohut et al, 2019;Marshall & Miller, 2019;Short, Black, Smith, Wetterneck, & Wells, 2012). Interestingly, it is not always the case that multi-item assessments outperform single item assessments (Bergkvist & Rossiter, 2007;Diamantopoulos, Sarstedt, Fuchs, Wilczynski, & Kaiser, 2012), and for this reason, the assumed inappropriateness of single item assessments of pornography use may not be sound.…”

“…Borrowing from similar lines of research where the accuracy of self-reported behaviors appears quite questionable, Kohut et al (2019) have pointed out that survey research concerning pornography use may better reflect self-perceptions of such use, or otherwise biased reports of such use, than actual use itself. This is yet one more reason that researchers should guard against the tendency to interpret correlations from a causal perspective.…”