Is Porn Bad For You? A Skeptical Look at NPR's Dismissive Answer

 National Public Radio (NPR) is concerned about a relatively small group of men who abstain from internet porn. Using language typically reserved for anti-vaccine gurus like RFK, Jr, the news outlet took aim at the websites where these "NoFap" advocates congregate, reporting last week that “Masturbation abstinence is popular online. Doctors and therapists are worried.”

The headline struck me as a little dramatic, so what exactly are these experts worried about?

“More than two decades of growing internet use has surfaced fears about the social and psychological impacts of nearly unfettered access to pornography. But many researchers and sex therapists worry that the online communities that have formed in response to these fears often endorse inaccurate medical information, exacerbate mental health problems and, in some cases, overlap with extremist and hate groups."

 The concern isn't completely unfounded. Similar to supplement hucksters like Josh Axe, there are anti-masturbation coaches and You-Tubers who claim that kicking your porn habit can cure depression and make you more manly and successful along the way.

But the same criticism doesn't apply to the core claims of these online communities—that frequent porn use can be harmful, and avoiding it may reduce the risk of several serious negative outcomes.

Ignoring (a lot of) science

To her credit, NPR reporter Lisa Hagen acknowledged that some people benefit from the NoFap movement, quoting one man named Tim who credits the community for saving his marriage. But she spent most of her article casting doubt on the efficacy of  “masturbation abstinence" while overlooking a large body of research that has investigated the harmful effects of porn use—even when those effects coincide with concerns she voiced in the article. 

She warns, for instance, that anti-porn forums and websites can engender shame in their male members and malign women “as the source of temptation” for young men. Yet the same impacts of porn itself have been documented time and again. Examining the effects of sexually explicit content on teenage boys and young men, this 2016 review of 135 studies published between 1995 and 2015 reported that

… [E]xposure to sexually objectifying images of women is linked with young men’s feeling more discomfort with their own bodies, as indicated by higher levels of self-objectification and self-surveillance and lower body esteem [emphasis in the original].

A 2015 study similarly found that teenage boys exposed to “sexualizing magazines” assigned increased importance to girls’ body size and sexual body parts, which encouraged them to pursue courtship strategies that emphasized the value of appearance.

Earlier research from 2009 showed that male undergraduate students exposed to images of sexualized women expressed less confidence in their own romantic capabilities compared to men who didn’t view the same images, leading the authors to speculate “that participants believed that to be romantically successful with these women would require them to conform to an idealized appearance standard.” 

What about the opposite sex? Summarizing eight studies published between 2008 and 2015, the 2016 review reported that young women exposed in the lab to sexually objectifying media content reported higher levels of self-objectification than students exposed “to neutral or non-objectifying media.” In sum, the review continued:

“ …[T]here is substantial experimental evidence that adolescents and adults exposed to sexually objectifying images report greater body concerns and body dissatisfaction than do individuals who were not exposed to these images.”

These results seem especially relevant given the ubiquity of online porn; somewhere between four and 15 percent of the internet is dedicated to adult content. Why, then, is NPR troubled by a tiny subculture that wants to avoid it?

Porn and sexual dysfunction 

The issues linked to porn use go far beyond insecurity and distorted body image, however. Studies have shown that pornography, owing to qualities like “limitless novelty,” is fundamentally different from actual sex, to the point that “sex with desired partners may not register as meeting expectations and arousal declines,” according to another 2016 review. The unfortunate results: erectile dysfunction (ED), initially reported by scientists at the Kinsey Institute in 2007, and delayed ejaculation, documented in multiple clinical reports. 

NPR noted that other experts have challenged the connection between porn and sexual dysfunction. They argue that we may not have enough evidence to draw a conclusion, particularly since there are other risk factors for these conditions in young men. Nevertheless, there is some clinical evidence (also ignored by NPR) that abstaining from internet porn “is sometimes sufficient to reverse negative effects.” The risk of ED also appears to increase with the amount of porn that men consume.

A cause of violence?

Hagen spent a sizable portion of her NPR essay associating porn-abstinence communities with sexism. “It's a short leap from self-help to more extreme, misogynist messages,” she wrote, referencing the work of a sociologist who studies anti-porn activism. Oddly, she neglected the striking connection between viewing pornography and violent sexual behavior—defined as the use or threat of physical force to obtain sex, or verbally coercive communication to obtain sex, and sexual harassment. 

That definition comes from a 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies conducted in seven countries, which concluded that “Consumption [of porn] was associated with sexual aggression in the United States and internationally…”  The correlation was found in men and women in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The authors noted that multiple factors influence sexual aggression, and many pornography viewers are not sexually aggressive. “However,” they continued: 

"the accumulated data leave little doubt that, on the average, individuals who consume pornography more frequently are more likely to hold attitudes conducive to sexual aggression and engage in actual acts of sexual aggression than individuals who do not consume pornography or who consume pornography less frequently."

Conclusion

This by no means settles the debate. Porn use has exploded in recent years, and it will take scientists much longer to fully assess the impact of that trend. But based on what we know now, abstaining from pornography is perfectly reasonable, in the same way that some people avoid alcohol, sugar, or social media. NPR's overwrought attempt to politicize this issue is just another reason to get your science and health news from better sources.