Changes in Sexual Behaviour: Pornography Addictions

Khristian Arroyo

LS/SOC 325

Dr. Allison Chenie

April 1, 2020
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The presence of pornographic material in society is a widely debated topic throughout

many communities and is the focus of many sociological studies. The theory that exposure to

sexually explicit material is associated to changes in behaviour introduces an argument to

whether hypersexual addiction to pornography could initiate into violent sexual aggression. The

general media already exploits the exposure of sexually explicit material, so the cause and effect

factor play a role. The exposure to pornography introduces harmful behavioural development

while influencing psychological tendencies like erotic fantasies to the cognitive constructions of

natural human development. Influences from media exposure such as explicit movies progress

sexual urges which expands social learning inspiring viewers to reciprocate sexual tendencies

that may lead to sexually deviant behaviour to those that are addicted or exhibit mental

psychological problems.

To first delve into the topic of pornography addiction and its connections to the

likelihood of committing sex crimes, an introduction to media exposure should also be taken to

account. Deemed as more passive, society downplays the role of Hollywood movies and social

media in comparison to pornographic material, but there may be a correlation that shows the

affects to the easily accessible media is the cause to many sorts of behavioural scripting.

“Sexually Explicit Material” in the modern day is vastly prevalent in society; from movies,

sexually provocative music videos, to advertisement, it is clear that adolescent exposure to

sexually explicit material is somewhat now normalized towards societal interpretations. Movies

provide a gateway of sexual exposure to adolescents, which may encourage erotic tendencies.

Furthermore, children that consume social media activity start to establish unrealistic beauty

standards, therefore, adjusting unhealthy depictions as normal cognitive distortions. The focus

around the media’s relevance is to understand that the connection to sexual offenses in the media
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are not caused only by the pathology of early Pornographic exposure, but by the numerous

promotions led by the sexually explicit nature of what society sees every day. Other examples

like the exposure to alcohol and tobacco products, and violence too, deviate adolescent

behaviour to act out in a more aggressive manner. Adult delinquency can also be viewed in a

negative light blaming movies and media for their actions. Copycat killers as they are portrayed

in the public are inspired to replicated criminal offenses they have seen on television and movies;

for example, the movie “A Clockwork Orange” inspired a gang rape of a Dutch girl while the

group were singing “Singin’ in the Rain” the iconic song from the notorious scene as shown in

the film. An understanding toward the aggressive nature as said by scholars can explain:

That the effect of media on sexual behavior is driven by the acquisition and activation of

sexual scripts. Scripts provide behavioral options in social situations, including those that may

lead to sexual behavior, and the content of scripts is often influenced by media. (O’Hara et al.,

as cited in Wright, 2011)

The belief that sexually explicit material channel urges to sexual behaviour arises from

intense stimulation the body receives from excessive exposure. The sensations in the body are

observed from models of external factors viewed by the observer which induce psychological

drives and ideas towards the developmental growth of behaviour. Furthermore, the concept of

social learning theory concerning sexual abuse can also factor in as sexual offenders, who were

abused in the past, assault their victims similarly to their own sexually abused experiences. The

correlation of sexual exposure between the media and physically abused offenders shows adverse

sexual scripts enduring influence from harmful exposure of convenient movies/media access and
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abusive family/friends (Wright, 2011). Moreover, continued exposure to explicit material in the

media can lead those harmful scripts to develop into social constructs. The transition to

Pornographic material from movies and social media is not difficult to assume. Aggressive

behaviours caused by copious amounts of movies alluding to violent or sexual themes pertain

empirical evidence that prove social learning has surmounted aggression and sexual erotica to be

widely accepted amongst the general population.

The factor to pornography that contributes to sexual crimes is based on the sociological

tendencies one produces while exposed to sexually explicit material. I would like to establish

that the goal of this analysis is not to claim that pornography is a sexually deviant act in nature,

but instead the focus of the argument is to understand hypersexual characteristics that have

aggressive tendencies that link to sexual deviant behaviour. Additionally, I will be assuming that

the general population who watch pornographic or sexually explicit material are less likely to be

affected. However, those who inhibit any certain mental conditions for a tendency to commit

violence, sexual violence, or are using illicit/violent pornography, will be focused on as their

characteristics display unusual behaviour that distinguish from aspects of regular pornographic

use. My research on pornography addiction found that many of the empirical evidence remain

inconclusive because of many small sample sizes; however, there are many relevant data that

closely resemble addiction which can attest to my analysis. Carners (2014) believes that a

pathological relationship based on mood-altering experiences present a mutual linkage to addicts

acting from incontrollable behaviours motivated by properties in our brain (dopamine) to reward

pleasurable experiences even when consequences are known. Similar to the consequential

dispositions of gambling addiction, impulse addicted gamblers alike from pornography addicts

exhibit a parallel in the problematic consumption model: problems with impaired control and the
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pursuit of cravings. This assertion likely then proves that a great exposure to pornography leads

to harmful and destructive implications because the desires of negative sensations compels

individuals to crave on urges that control them to do certain acts they would not particularly do

prior to their addiction. Hypersexual disorder also known as nymphomania is a sexual

preoccupation in the mind which include fantasizing and sexually aggressive behaviour.

Hypersexuality is also known amongst the category of sexual offending as well as prevalent

patterns of deviant activity. Furthermore, the relationship between hypersexual activity and

pornographic addiction are shown by scholars as:

Reports of more frequent pornography use have been positively associated with feelings of

isolation and loneliness. Moreover, we believe that it is the target’s subjective experience that

will ultimately have the strongest impact on their psychological and emotional responses to an

aggressive act. (Hald, Smolenski, Rosser, 2013)

Due to the close correlations of deviant behaviour and hypersexual addiction

Chamberlain et al. (2016) described that the implications of pornography addiction can cause

emotional distress, and risky sexual behaviour. It is also worth noting that many of the

characteristics of hypersexual addicts’ fit characteristics of some rape and child sexual abuse

typologies like anti-social behaviour, low self-esteem, and high impulses. Individuals who suffer

from hypersexual disorder also try to seek out new outlets to relieve their addiction which could

suggest that more aggressive means to achieving their addiction are possible. As pornography is

a detached means of sexual relief, hypersexual individuals fantasize personal interaction, this

could evidently be a dangerous act as it could discourage victim empathy or could even
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transition masturbation to paraphilic activity. Furthermore, going back and applying social

learning theory to pornography, the exposure to viewing extensive amounts of pornography can

influence and manipulate behaviour. Consequently, addicted viewers could suffer from

psychological alterations in their sexual scripts allowing cognitive distortions to, once again,

create unhealthy depictions of sexual abnormality as common preconceived notions in the real

world. The negative effects of these behavioural changes are most likely to occur if so happen

that the viewer attempts to repeat the same actions which were learned by external factors from

the overconsumption of sexually explicit material. In this case pornography serves as a source

for future behaviours. The symptoms that pertain in hypersexual disorder share similar

tendencies concerning deviant sexual crimes. To elaborate, it is homogenous to view that

hypersexual individuals are likely crave for deviant paraphilic like pornography while more

corrupted individuals exposed to extensive amounts of pornography are likely to seek something

more physical.

Focusing more towards the topic of offenders; adult sex offenders and primarily child sex

offenders fit the criteria in which pornography is seen as a partial role towards their offending.

As it is shown that the use of pornography stimulates the body and behavioural patterns, it could

also be presumed that sexually explicit material invokes cognitive tendencies to act out offenses.

Masturbation to pornography can elicit the possibilities of replication in sexual behaviour, it is

likely that observers learn sexual ques and actions that they would also like to reciprocate in

sexual activity. Sun et al. (2014) expressed that pornographic material men watch are heuristic

tendencies and are likely copied during sex. Furthermore, these observations could cause

cognitive problems on an individual’s perception towards sexual mores as they learn from

observations rather than personal experience. With the alteration of an addict’s sexual mores and
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an introduction to viewing harmful pornography, like BDSM or child pornography, the

consciousness of an observer can inadvertently perceive violence as sexual pleasure. These

unrealistic attitudes about sexual activity as well as being more sexually permissive are some

reasons why women and children are seen as objects. The issue, with that being said, is the

notions sexual predators have on their victims. Child predators typically commit deviant activity

without sympathy because these predators are antithetical to their actions. Predators often

perceive their actions as educational or helpful to the child as they see to it that they are not

hurting anyone; children are traumatically damaged from sexual abuse, yet offenders misdirect

their actions upon the victim giving excuses and establishing that the child seduced their

behaviour. In regard to pornography, it was “reported that participants who went on to become

child sex offenders were exposed to pornography more in childhood than those who went on to

become adult sexual offenders” (Mellor and Duff, as cited in Carter and Prentky, 1986). The

grounds to elicit sexual fantasies are motivational factors to abuse children. It may be likely to

think that child predators use porn, probably child pornography, prior to offending, to crave the

cognitive distortion brought by their actions. The link to pornography is further explained as

studies show:

Sexually explicit materials may encourage the acquisition and incentivization of the sexual

behaviors portrayed in such material--specifically sexually aggressive behaviors and child-

oriented sexual behaviors… Associations between frequent pornography consumption and

sexually aggressive behaviors, among men are at high dispositional risk for sexual aggression.

(Fisher et al., as cited in Malamuth et al., 2001; Malamuth et al., 2012; Vega et al., 2007)
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These analyses explain that with extensive exposure to pornographic material particular

viewers may undertake paraphilic behaviours like pedophilia. If an individual favour violent or

child pornography, then they are engaging in deviant sexual behaviour. Because most sexual

fantasies influence cognitive constructs, it is still at fault from the predator’s behaviour as it is

planned by urges and desire. Thus, sexual behaviour influenced by pornographic material is to

act on deviant fantasies by sexually stimulating oneself.

In conclusion, my research on this paper was not to claim that the disappearance of

sexually explicit material on the internet would culminate into less deviant crimes. Rather, the

evidence I brought up emphasizes that there is a connection to sexually deviant behaviour to

those who exhibit mental psychological problems. Pornography alone does not make men act out

on violent impulses and desire, but the fact that pornography plays a part in exposure to society

is a factor that needs to be kept in mind.

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Work cited

Carter D, Prentky R. (1986). Use of pornography in the criminal and developmental histories of

sexual offenders. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 196–211.

Chamberlain, S.R., Lochner, C., Stein, D.J., Goudriaan, A.E., van Holst, R.J., Zohar, J., Grant.

(2016). J.E. Behavioural addiction-A rising tide? Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol., 26, 841–

855.

Fisher, W., Kohut, T., Gioacchino, L., & Fedoroff, P. (2013). Pornography, Sex Crime, and

Paraphilia. Current Psychiatry Reports, 15(6), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-013-

0362-7

Hald, G., Smolenski, D., & Rosser, B. (2013). Perceived Effects of Sexually Explicit Media

among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Psychometric Properties of the Pornography

Consumption Effects Scale (PCES). The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10(3), 757–767.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02988.x

Malamuth NM, Addison T, Koss M (2001). Pornography and sexual aggression: are there

reliable effects? Annu Rev Sex Res,11, 26–91.

Malamuth NM, Hald GM, Koss M (2012). Pornography, individual differences in risk and men’s

acceptance of violence against women in a representative sample. Sex Roles, 66, 427–39.

Mellor, E., & Duff, S. (2019). The use of pornography and the relationship between pornography

exposure and sexual offending in males: A systematic review. Aggression and Violent

Behavior, 46, 116–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.02.003

O’Hara, R. E., Gibbons, F. X., Gerrard, M., Li, Z., & Sargent, J. D. (2012). Greater Exposure to

Sexual Content in Popular Movies Predicts Earlier Sexual Debut and Increased Sexual
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Risk Taking. Psychological Science, 23(9), 984–993.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611435529

Rosenberg, K.P., O’Connor, S., Carnes, P. (2014). Sex Addiction: An Overview∗. In Behavioral

Addictions; Rosenberg, K.P., Feder, L.C., Eds. Academic Press, 9, 215–236.

Sun C, Bridges A, Johnason J and Ezzell M (2014) Pornography and the male sexual script: An

analysis of consumption and sexual relations. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, epublication

ahead of print, 3 December.

Vega V, Malamuth NM (2007). Predicting sexual aggression: the role of pornography in the

context of general and specific risk factors. Aggress Behav, 33, 104–17.

Wright, P. J. (2011). Mass media effects on youth sexual behavior: Assessing the claim for

causality. Communication Yearbook, 35, 343–386.

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