is about what it says in the name – your brain and porn. It is maintained by a group effort that includes men who have recovered from internet-porn related problems. It was founded by the late Gary Wilson, a retired anatomy, physiology & pathology teacher (more below).
You can contact YBOP admins here. Please do not ask YBOP admins questions specific to your situation. YBOP does not diagnose or provide medical or sexual advice. See quitting porn and the support page for help with your porn-related problems.
More about us
1) Is this site religious?
The site’s founder was an atheist and politically liberal (as were his parents and grandparents). For more see this 2016 interview of Gary Wilson by Noah B. Church. Also watch this 2019 interview where Gary & Mark Queppet discuss the defamatory harassment by porn science deniers who endeavored to discredit and defame Gary. (Begin here, at minute 28.)
Gary died in 2021: press release. If you want to leave a comment on his memorial site visit https://www.garywilson.life/. You can also watch this online gathering from a year later.
2) Does anyone make money from YBOP?
- The proceeds from Gary Wilson’s book go to charity. Gary Wilson accepted no fees for speaking. Contributions received since his death also go to charity.
- Looking for a public speaker? (men who have recovered from porn-induced sexual dysfunctions)
3) What is the current state of the research on Internet porn addiction and porn’s effects?
- An official diagnosis? The world’s most widely used medical diagnostic manual, The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), contains a new diagnosis suitable for porn addiction: “Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder.” (2018) The 2022 update includes the following: “Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder may be expressed in a variety of behaviours, including sexual behaviour with others, masturbation, use of pornography, cybersex (internet sex), telephone sex, and other forms of repetitive sexual behaviour.” (emphasis added)
- Porn/sex addiction? This page lists dozens of neuroscience-based studies (MRI, fMRI, EEG, neuropsychological, hormonal). They provide support for the addiction model as their findings mirror the neurological findings reported in substance addiction studies. Also see this 2022 review by expert Frederick Toates: “A motivation model of sex addiction – Relevance to the controversy over the concept.”
- The real experts’ opinions on porn/sex addiction? This list contains dozens of literature reviews & commentaries by some of the top neuroscientists in the world. All lend support to the addiction model.
- Signs of addiction and escalation to more extreme material? Over 60 studies reporting findings consistent with escalation of porn use (tolerance), habituation to porn, and even withdrawal symptoms (all signs and symptoms associated with addiction). Separate page with more than 15 studies reporting withdrawal symptoms in porn users.
- Debunking the unsupported talking point that “high sexual desire” explains away porn or sex addiction: Over 25 studies falsify the claim that sex & porn addicts “just have high sexual desire”
Porn linked to problems
- Porn and sexual problems? This list contains dozens of studies linking porn use/porn addiction to sexual problems and lower arousal to sexual stimuli. The first 7 studies in the list demonstrate causation, as participants eliminated porn use and healed chronic sexual dysfunctions. And yet, some sexologists still can’t seem to acknowledge evidence of a link between sexual performance problems and porn use.
- Porn’s effects on relationships? Over 80 studies link porn use to less sexual and relationship satisfaction. As far as we know all studies involving males have reported more porn use linked to poorer sexual or relationship satisfaction. Some studies report little effect of women’s porn use on women’s sexual and relationship satisfaction, but many do report negative effects: Porn studies involving female subjects: Negative effects on arousal, sexual satisfaction, and relationships. Incidentally, now that equal numbers of young men and women are using online porn, there are more women reporting compulsive porn use.
- Porn use affecting emotional and mental health? Over 90 studies link porn use to poorer mental-emotional health & poorer cognitive outcomes.
Porn and sexism
- Porn use affecting beliefs, attitudes and behaviors? More than 40 studies link porn use to “un-egalitarian attitudes” toward women and sexist views – or the summary from this 2016 meta-analysis: Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995–2015. Excerpt:
The goal of this review was to synthesize empirical investigations testing effects of media sexualization. The focus was on research published in peer-reviewed, English-language journals between 1995 and 2015. A total of 109 publications that contained 135 studies were reviewed. The findings provided consistent evidence that both laboratory exposure and regular, everyday exposure to this content are directly associated with a range of consequences, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater self-objectification, greater support of sexist beliefs and of adversarial sexual beliefs, and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women. Moreover, experimental exposure to this content leads both women and men to have a diminished view of women’s competence, morality, and humanity.
Sexual aggression and porn
- What about sexual aggression and porn use? Another meta-analysis: A Meta‐Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies (2015). Excerpt:
22 studies from 7 different countries were analyzed. Consumption was associated with sexual aggression in the United States and internationally, among males and females, and in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Associations were stronger for verbal than physical sexual aggression, although both were significant. The general pattern of results suggested that violent content may be an exacerbating factor.
- “But hasn’t porn use reduced rape rates?” No, rape rates have been rising in recent years: “Rape rates are on the rise, so ignore the pro-porn propaganda.” See this page for over 100 studies linking porn use to sexual aggression, coercion & violence and an extensive critique of the often-repeated assertion that an increased availability of porn has resulted in decreased rape rates.
Porn and youth
- What about the porn use and adolescents? Check out this list of over 280 adolescent studies, or these reviews of the literature about porn and young people: review#1, review2, review#3, review#4, review#5, review#6, review#7, review#8, review#9, review#10, review#11, review#12, review#13, review#14, review#15, review #16, review #17, etc. From the conclusion of this 2012 review of the research – The Impact of Internet Pornography on Adolescents: A Review of the Research:
Increased access to the Internet by adolescents has created unprecedented opportunities for sexual education, learning, and growth. Conversely, the risk of harm that is evident in the literature has led researchers to investigate adolescent exposure to online pornography in an effort to elucidate these relationships. Collectively, these studies suggest that youth who consume pornography may develop unrealistic sexual values and beliefs. Among the findings, higher levels of permissive sexual attitudes, sexual preoccupation, and earlier sexual experimentation have been correlated with more frequent consumption of pornography…. Nevertheless, consistent findings have emerged linking adolescent use of pornography that depicts violence with increased degrees of sexually aggressive behavior.
The literature does indicate some correlation between adolescents’ use of pornography and self-concept. Girls report feeling physically inferior to the women they view in pornographic material, while boys fear they may not be as virile or able to perform as the men in these media. Adolescents also report that their use of pornography decreased as their self-confidence and social development increase. Additionally, research suggests that adolescents who use pornography, especially that found on the Internet, have lower degrees of social integration, increases in conduct problems, higher levels of delinquent behavior, higher incidence of depressive symptoms, and decreased emotional bonding with caregivers.
Studies demonstrating causation
- Aren’t all studies correlative? No. Over 90 studies demonstrate internet use & porn use causing negative outcomes & symptoms, and brain changes. Also see Paul Wright, PhD Calls Out Porn Researchers’ Questionable Tactics (2021), which discusses the import of the abundant longitudinal research on porn and its implications for inferring causation.
Debunking the naysayers
- For a debunking of nearly every naysayer talking point and cherry-picked study see this extensive critique: Debunking “Why Are We Still So Worried About Watching Porn?”, by Marty Klein, Taylor Kohut, and Nicole Prause (2018).
- How to recognize biased articles: They cite Prause et al., 2015 (falsely claiming it debunks porn addiction), while omitting over 50 neurological studies supporting porn addiction.
4) Has Gary Wilson published in the peer-reviewed literature?
- In 2016 Gary Wilson published two peer-reviewed papers:
5) Are there any studies that falsify the porn addiction model?
- No. Despite claims you may see in the press, there are not. In this 2018 presentation Gary Wilson exposes the truth behind 5 questionable and misleading studies, including the two flawed EEG studies (Steele et al., 2013 and Prause et al., 2015): Porn Research: Fact or Fiction?
- As stated above, the World Health Organization’s medical diagnostic manual, The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), now contains a diagnosis suitable for porn addiction or sex addiction: “Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder.” The debate is over, although the guerrillas of the APA’s DSM-5 continue to pretend like they haven’t yet noticed the new section in the ICD-11.
6) Do doctors and therapists recognize and treat porn-induced sexual dysfunctions?
- Yes. This page contains articles and interviews with some 150 experts (urology professors, urologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, sexologists, MDs) who acknowledge and have successfully treated porn-induced ED and porn-induced loss of sexual desire.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth
the humble reasoning of a single individual. ~Galileo
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