There’s a reason the Mormons have declared pornography a public health crisis. Porn kills love, they say, and they’ve got the science to prove it. Study after study has claimed that watching pornography is associated with less sexual enjoyment and lower relationship satisfaction.
The consistent findings had many convinced: porn degrades men’s relationships and destroys their sex lives. However, new research is suddenly throwing a wrench into the old science. The authors say it’s not smutty movies and masturbation that are making these men miserable. It’s their religious beliefs.
The negative association between pornography use and a happy love life is much stronger in more religious Americans, noticed researchers Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead in their forthcoming study in The Journal of Sex Research.
They suggest these God-fearing fellas are likely coping with moral incongruence, engaging in an activity that violates their moral values. They’re suffering from something called cognitive dissonance, situations in which people have conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. That sense of imbalance can cause a ton of mental discomfort and psychological stress.
In the study’s random sample of 1,501 American adults, participants were asked how satisfied they are with their sex lives, how often they visit porn sites, how often they attend worship services, and the extent to which they take the Bible literally.
As usual, the more men spent their time on Pornhub, the lower their overall sexual satisfaction (women were unaffected). However, when focusing on men who rarely went to church or temple and thought the Bible was a load of horseshit, that negative relationship essentially disappeared. The effects of watching a Sasha Grey gang bang were entirely dependent upon the moral compass of the masturbator.
Throughout history, religions have always made a valiant effort to prevent people from masturbating. In the past, they’d preach that you’d go blind, grow hairy palms, or be reborn as a domestic turkey. Today, they create religious crusades, like Porn Kills Love, to support the stigma that jerking off will make your life unravel like a ball of twine.
On its official web site, Porn Kills Love boasts such statistics as:
“Studies have found that frequency of porn use correlates with depression, anxiety, stress, and social problems.”
“Even moderate porn use is correlated with shrunken grey matter in parts of the brain that oversee cognitive function.”
“After being exposed to pornography, men reported being less satisfied with their partners’ physical appearance, sexual performance, and level of affection and express greater desire for sex without emotional involvement.”
“A meta-analysis of 33 studies found that exposure to either nonviolent or violent porn increased behavioral aggression, including both violent fantasies and actual violent assaults.”
The scare tactics haven’t changed much. Unfortunately, this new research serves as evidence that it’s working — men are really worried about wanking it — so much so, their sex lives are suffering.
The religious community also has a bad habit of immediately labeling normal human behaviors, like sexual urges and pornography use, as an addiction.
Recent research has found that men believing they’re sex or porn addicts is better predicted by their religious values than their actual porn use. They feel ashamed of their sexual desires and believe the amount of sex they’re having or the amount of porn they’re watching is excessive, when they’re actually having less sex and watching less porn than the vast majority of men.
All this serves as some pretty strong evidence that if you’re religious, you should probably avoid porn like the plague. It’ll leave you feeling addicted, lead to shame and anxiety, or drag down your relationship and sexual satisfaction.
Instead, we suggest turning to Stop Masturbation Now, the cult that promises to cure all your sinful carnal urges.
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