An old New Zealand study that we hadn’t seen before confirmed some interesting things about porn use, which today’s sexologists seem to have forgotten. Here are the key points:
- If men silently read the same pornographic material repeatedly in the lab, their measurable sexual response declined. Novel material, on the other hand, perked a gent’s member right up.
- But, if the men ejaculated after reading (and re-reading) the porn, their sexual response to the familiar porn became more pronounced, at least for the duration of the experiment (6 sessions over a period of 2 weeks). The ejaculation-reinforced porn evidently became a trigger for arousal.
Fast-forward to today’s endless stream of free, novel videos viewed not in the lab, but wherever one wishes. Today’s heavy porn users report that visual stimuli that are similar (for example, a single genre) seem to lead to declining arousal, even with sexual reinforcement (ejaculation).
Back to the early research:
Clearly, it is not consuming porn that causes compulsive use...unless it is novel or reinforced with ejaculation.
That a particular pornographic stimulus will, on repetition, no longer elicit a sexual response, although novel stimuli may still be effective, is suggested in the studies already discussed. Conversely, if the response to a given stimulus is continually or occasionally followed by reinforcement, then … the response would be strengthened.
Even at this early date (1977), researchers acknowledged that, “there is already considerable evidence that the sexual response is amenable to conditioning.” But today’s sexologists will often flatly deny the possibility of such conditioning with respect to porn.
Could the porn industry’s early support of their research partially explain their reluctance to speak up?
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The effect of pornography on penile tumescence as a function of reinforcement and novelty
Abstract
Penile response in six adult males was monitored while pornography was presented repeatedly for six trials over a period of 2 weeks. A significant decrement in penile response to the repeated stimuli occurred, although novel stimuli continued to elicit a response. Two further subjects were exposed to the same procedure, except that immediate sexual reinforcement followed each trial. After six trials, responding for these two subjects had increased, suggesting that extinction rather than satiation or habituation may be involved when decreased responding over trials is found in laboratory studies of pornography.