Study: Porn Use Unrelated to Relationship Satisfaction

More good news about the impact of pornography use: Despite common fears that watching smut destroys relationships, a recent study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships concluded, “Pornography use was related to same-day sexual desire and activity, but unrelated to relationship satisfaction,” according to PsyPost.org. In other words, healthy use of porn doesn’t seem to have an influence on how happy people are with their relationships.

The study collected over 13,000 diary-style daily surveys from 434 Canadians in various types of monogamous relationships over the course of 35 days. The diaries tracked measures of pornography use, sexual desire and activity, and relationship satisfaction. And its findings may shock those who assume that porn is a relationship killer.

Particularly in women in the study, porn use was actually a good thing for both the porn user and her partner. “For women, regardless of partner’s sex, using pornography was associated with their own and their partner’s higher sexual desire and with higher odds of partnered sexual activity,” wrote the study’s authors. 

“For men, regardless of partner’s sex, using pornography was associated with their partner’s lower sexual desire,” said the abstract. “It is plausible that on days when a man’s partner has lower levels of sexual desire, he uses pornography instead,” the researchers speculated to PsyPost. 

But things got a bit more complicated for men, depending on what gender their partner was: “For men coupled with women, [porn use was associated] with lower odds of partnered sexual activity, and for men coupled with men, with higher odds of partnered sexual activity.”

The study also established that porn use is highly prevalent: “97% of men coupled with a man, 76% of men coupled with a woman, 57% of women coupled with a woman and 40% of women coupled with a man reported pornography use at least once during the 35-day period.”

The studies authors were careful to note that their work here focused on short-term effects of pornography on a relationships, and didn’t seek information on “problematic pornography use” (e.g. overuse or addiction). The study’s lead author, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel told PsyPost, “There are still many unanswered questions about the effect of pornography use, and we think that future studies should examine how different relational contexts surrounding pornography use (e.g., secret[s] around use, quality of communication about pornography use and sexuality) could help understand in which context pornography use may have negative effect on romantic relationships.”

Still, the takeaway from this study is clear: “These results suggest that we should be cautious before concluding that pornography use is the trigger of couples’ difficulties.” Take that, society!

Photo by Jasmine Carter from Pexels