Porn industry allies, including tribes of pro-porn researchers, have been pushing the idea that people reporting symptoms of PPU (problematic porn use) merely suffer from moral incongruence (meaning they have ethical concerns about porn use). The implication is that these people are “religious” and thus that religion, not porn use, is their “real” problem.
Years ago, YBOP’s founder (and others) saw through this tactic for obfuscating the link between severe symptoms and overuse of today’s porn. (The obfuscation began years earlier with Josh Grubbs’s dubious attempt to push the spin term “perceived porn addiction” as a legitimate concept.)
Now, an international group of high-quality researchers has (again) affirmed that religion has very little to do with severe porn symptoms. It’s time to be very skeptical of the oft-repeated claim that “moral-incongruence” explains anything…other than how lucrative industries and their allies artfully prop up their propaganda.
Excerpts:
Our findings challenge the assumption of elevated psychological distress and treatment-seeking tendencies among individuals with religiosity-based MI [moral incongruence].
Unlike the two groups with elevated PPU, the group with religious-based MI group did not report heightened psychological distress or treatment-seeking tendencies.
Similar to other behavioural addictions, such as Internet gaming and gambling, PPU is associated with elevated psychological distress, heightened impulsivity, compulsivity, and personality traits like higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness. Sociodemographic factors, particularly younger age and male gender, also increase susceptibility to PPU.
[The samples consisting of US and UK male porn users totaled 2300 participants, average age: ~36. Of those 15.70% were at risk for problematic porn use (with or without MI) according to the assessment tools employed.]
Profiles of problematic pornography use and religiosity-based moral incongruence using latent profile analysis: A two-sample study [available in full]
Journal of Behavioral Addictions
Campbell Ince, Jeggan Tiego, Lucy Albertella, Leonardo F. Fontenelle, Samuel R. Chamberlain, Murat Yücel, and Kristian Rotaru
ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: Recent taxonomies propose that pornography-related problems may arise from problematic pornography use (PPU) and/or moral incongruence (MI). Although religiosity is often viewed as a key factor in MI, religious-based MI has not yet been explicitly examined within these taxonomies, which we address herein. Methods: Using latent profile analysis of self-report data obtained, we examined distinct and overlapping profiles of PPU and religiosity-based MI in two online samples of male pornography users from the United States (N 5 1,356, Mage 5 36.86, SD 5 11.26) and United Kingdom (N 5 944, Mage 5 38.69, SD 5 12.26). Results: Three classes (15–25% of each sample) showed elevated PPU and/or religiosity-based MI: ‘At risk for religiosity-based MI’ (4–8%), ‘At risk for PPU’ (6–10%), and ‘At risk for co-occurring PPU and religiosity-based MI’ (6–8%). Unlike the two groups with elevated PPU, the group with religious-based MI group did not report heightened psychological distress or treatment-seeking tendencies. Respondents were otherwise classified as “not at risk” (40–47%) “low risk” (27–28%), or moderate-severity PPU (14%, Sample 2 only). Discussion and Conclusions: Although the observed heterogeneity validates a taxonomy of PPU and religiosity-based MI, our findings challenge the assumption of elevated psychological distress and treatment-seeking tendencies among individuals with religiosity-based MI. Future research should further examine the clinical relevance of religiosity-based MI and extend these findings to broader (e.g., clinical, culturally diverse) samples.