Get Fapping! Porn Is Good For You
March 20, 2015
For a long time, people have been saying that porn is bad for us. It ruins the way we think about sex, and some have even suggested it can lead to erectile dysfunction. Yikes!
Thankfully, the scientists at the University of California have come forward and proved that these claims simply aren’t the case, and that watching porn is actually good for you. As if you even needed a reason to fap in the first place.
Small scale research
The actually study was relatively small scale, meaning that it might not apply to the whole world. After all, those included in the study were all straight white men, and were mostly in their early 20s. This is hardly representative of the whole world, right?
They invited 280 men to take part in this study, and the men were all asked to keep a record of the hours they spent viewing porn each week. They also had to complete the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire to see if they experienced erectile problems.
Of these 280 men, 127 had regular partners that they spent time with, and so they were also testing if porn had an impact on their relationship.
This may have been a follow up to the survey conducted by the website Help Porn Addiction, that suggested men spend 40 minutes a week watching porn, which works out at around 3 months in the average lifetime.
They wanted to know what exactly watching porn did to the subjects, and if it had any detrimental effects on the way they think of sex.
Conducting the study
The men had a wide range of different hours spent watching porn, with some saying they never watched any during the course of the study while others claimed to have watched up to 25 hours of the stuff.
Taking this information into account, the scientists Nicole Prause and Professor Pfaus then showed the participants films in the lab that were thought to be “vanilla”. The video was simply a man and woman having sex.
Afterwards, the men were asked to record their level of sexual desire and how arousing they found the clip to be.
This information was then compared to the information about how much porn they watched, as well as their answers to the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire, to see if there was any correlation that could be drawn to show that porn ruins your sex life.
Surprising results
Those who said they watched no porn during the study had an arousal score of around 40 when shown the vanilla content, but those who admitted to watching porn at home said that their arousal was at the 50 mark.
The scientists explain that “this pattern suggests that those who view more visual sexual stimuli (VSS) are likely to have a higher sexual drive. Sexual arousal responsivity may not be impaired by viewing more VSS at home, as it actually was related to stronger desire and sexual arousal in two of the three relationships tested.”
Basically, the men who watch porn at home were actually more aroused by other stimulus, and there was no evidence found that watching porn could lead to erectile dysfunction.
Ms Prause proudly stated that this study “proves viewing erotica at home is not desensitising and perhaps even sensitised the men to respond more strongly.”
Counter arguments
So watching porn is good for you, right? The results of this study sure seem to prove that… but it is hardly surprising that this study has come under fire and criticism by those who still believe porn is bad for you.
The sex psychologist Dr Justin Lehmiller has taken a look at the study and believes that “it could very well be that those men who watch the most porn just tend to have the highest sex drives.” Of course, the only way to disprove that would be to do a larger scale study.
Ms Prause fights back against these claims, saying that “the result is important because clinicians often claim that men get desensitized by watching these films.”
She went on to say that “many clinicians claim that watching erotica makes men unable to respond sexually to ‘normal’ sexual situations with a partner. That was not the case in our sample.”
What now?
I think they only thing that can really be done now would be to conduct the study again, on a larger scale, with more varied participants. After all, it could just be that the men who found the porn more arousing did have a higher sex drive, and that really needs to be ruled out.
However, I think it is safe to say that the link between erectile dysfunction and porn is one that has been made up to scare people away from porn.
If anything, porn just gives you a healthy outlet for your sexual tension and masturbating can be incredibly relaxing. I mean, how stressed can you get whacking one off?
Is porn bad for us or should we be upping our intake? Have you noticed any changes in your sex life when you’re been watching more porn? Do you think it is good for you? Tell us what you’re thinking.
Since then she has gained a fine reputation with her blogs on sex advice, sexual health and amusing news stories from around the globe. She is also a campaigner for the rights of sex workers from all over the world.
In her spare time, Lara keeps herself active by going running, and is something of a film buff. She also loves to go travelling.
- The Sexy Side of Halloween: How to Wear Your Costume Like a Pro - October 30, 2023
- A Peek Inside the Physiology of Sexual Arousal - October 23, 2023
- Popularity Of Video Game Porn Continues To Climb - April 2, 2019
