Wondering if indulging in adult content can enhance your prowess in the bedroom?
Healthy Sex Life Benefits. A recent study, featured in the peer-reviewed journal Sexual Medicine, conducted by Concordia University (Montreal), explored the habits of approximately 280 non-hypersexual adult males. The research revealed that spending one to two hours per week on visual sexual stimulation (VSS), commonly known as “porn,” increased participants’ desire for both partnered and solo sexual activities by around 30 percent.
The study, titled “Viewing Sexual Stimuli Associated with Greater Sexual Responsiveness, Not Erectile Dysfunction,” as reported by AVN, highlighted that individuals who consumed more VSS exhibited heightened sexual arousal during lab experiments. Surprisingly, self-reported erectile functioning with a partner did not correlate with the weekly hours of VSS consumption. Moreover, those with higher VSS intake reported increased desire for both partnered and solo sexual behaviors.
This intriguing pattern suggests that individuals with a higher VSS consumption may possess a more pronounced sexual drive, experiencing a robust sexual response to standardized VSS compared to their counterparts with lower consumption. Importantly, the study indicates that higher VSS viewing at home may not impair sexual arousal responsivity; in fact, it correlated with stronger desire and arousal in two out of the three relationships tested.
The study aimed to debunk claims associating increased porn viewing with erectile dysfunction, a link established by previous research on individuals self-identifying as “porn addicts” or “hypersexual.” Volunteers for this study were sourced from psychology courses in Pocatello, Idaho, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as through flyers distributed in target communities.
Participants, initially surveyed about their regular sexual activities and porn viewing habits, were left alone in rooms with computers programmed to display sexually explicit videos of varying durations, interspersed with “neutral” non-sexual films to allow arousal to subside between segments.
According to study results, men’s desire for partnered sex increased from 40 to 53 on the Sexual Desire Scale for those who watched between six minutes and two hours of porn per week. However, watching more than two hours per week seemed to slightly decrease the desire for partner-related sexual activities. Notably, the desire to masturbate increased with extended viewing time.
Addressing the delay in discovering porn’s impact on the average male’s sexual desire, Prause and Pfaus suggested that previous studies may have neglected to explore positive effects. They emphasized the positive relationship between VSS viewing and various indices of sexual responsiveness, hinting at the potential improvement in erectile functioning associated with VSS viewing.
This study challenges the perspective of experts, who claims that extensive porn consumption leads to a preference for “industrial-strength” sex, potentially causing disinterest in partners. Contrary to this view, the Prause/Pfaus study concluded that erotica consumption, even in higher quantities, did not desensitize men and might even sensitize them to respond more strongly to sexual stimuli.
In summary, the study suggests a nuanced relationship between porn consumption and sexual desire, shedding light on the intricate dynamics at play rather than supporting oversimplified views of its impact.
