Pornography And Happiness: The Relationship Between Pornography Consumption And Subjective Wellbeing

Relationships between pornography consumption and negative outcomes such as sexual dissatisfaction are well established; yet, there is little empirical evidence concerning potential mediating mechanisms. In the present study, we draw on social comparison and self-discrepancy theories to predict how disparities between ideal and actual sexual experience will influence pornography consumers’ evaluations of their sexual self and sexual relationships, which then influences their general subjective wellbeing. We have three central predictions in the present study. First, we predict that pornography consumption will be associated with 1) an increase in the discrepancy between perceptions of what constitutes satisfied sex (ideal sex) and real sexual experiences (actual sex), 2) a decrease in sexual self and relationship evaluations, and 3) reduced overall subjective wellbeing. Second, we expect the idealactual sex discrepancy to be negatively associated with both sexual evaluations (self and relationship) and subjective wellbeing. In terms of mediation, we predict the ideal-actual discrepancy will mediate the relation between pornography consumption and sexual evaluations. Third, we expect that the negative relationship between the ideal-actual sex discrepancy and subjective wellbeing will be mediated by evaluations of self and sexual relationships. Participants will complete an online self-report questionnaire assessing their frequency of pornography consumption, perceptions of ideal sex, actual sexual experience, sexual self-evaluation, sexual relationship evaluation, and subjective wellbeing. The model and hypotheses will be tested using SEM. Overall we expect that the frequency of pornography consumption will negatively influence consumers’ subjective wellbeing both directly and indirectly.