Watch Dirty With Me: Relationship between Casual Sex and Pornography Reactions

Previous research has examined how different factors influence an individual’s sexual desires and reactions to pornography. Of particular interest is the role that various sex related factors (e.g., sociosexuality, sexual guilt) may play in one’s sexual opinions and behaviors. For example Hackathorn and colleagues (2015) found that high religiosity is connected to lower sexual activity and desires. Additionally, we know that there are sex differences in sexual desires and consumption of pornography, such that women consume less pornography and prefer it to be less hard-core (Ashton, et al., 2018). The current study will examine the role that various sex related factors (e.g., sociosexuality, sexual disgust) plays in one’s positive affect toward sexual media consumption (i.e., pornography). The current study will recruit a convenience sample of undergraduate participants to come into the lab and participate in viewing a video clip of two adults engaging in sexually related behaviors. Then, participants will complete a series of measures regarding their perceptions and attitudes toward the video, sexual behaviors generally, and other individual difference traits that might mediate some of these reactions. It is expected that in addition to traditional sex differences, sexual disgust, sexual guilt, sexual desires, sexual opinions, and morality will also play a role in one’s affective reactions to viewing a pornographic clip. Data is currently being collected. Identifying these relationships could help further the behavioral understanding of why some individuals react to pornography in positive ways, and others react in negative ways