Emerging Adults & Pornography: The relationship between exposure to explicit material on the internet and the acceptance and perceptions towards those who use it.
Tanner J. Huffman
University of Iowa
Introduction
The prevalence of pornography is linked to the ever-changing technology of modern society and the proliferation of the internet. This pervasiveness has caused the use of explicit materials on the internet to become ingrained in American society. This is especially relevant to emerging adults who are in a situation where computers and internet access are an ever-present part of daily life. The purpose of this study is to explore the correlations between exposure to explicit materials on the internet and the acceptance and perceptions of those who view it. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that pornography as a whole is a taboo area of human interpersonal culture which is understudied. This study takes a unique perspective in that it specifically targets the population of college students who are not only enveloped in the technological revolution but are emerging adults who are characterized by an innate need for exploration of sexuality, relationships, and values.
Literature review
The research into pornography has been limited and as a result the number of scholarly articles focused primarily in this area are also limited. However, there seem to be several overlapping findings associated with the studies that have been performed.
The prevalence of explicit materials on the internet has allowed of unlimited access to view and share these materials, yet as a society they are still viewed as one of the tabooed pieces of human culture. This may be due to the fact that our cognitive schemata categorize received information in a constructivist way that associates a negative view of explicit materials with the same view of the people that use them. Constructivism is the way in which we organize and interpret experiences through schemata. Schemata are the cognitive structures that constructivism uses to categorize information.
For the purposes of this study, the term "explicit materials" will refer to any media (video, image, or graphics interchange format (GIF)) transmitted through the use of technology that depicts nudity and or sexual activity.
Acceptance and Exposure to Pornography
There have been numerous studies related to individual's exposure to pornographic material and acceptance of such material, but there aren't any relevant studies that correlate findings of both. In one study, researchers analyzed the exposure to internet pornography in college students before the age of 18 (Sabina, C., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D., 2008). The study was consisted of 563 participants and included questions about first age of exposure, reason for viewing, and types of material viewed (Sabina, et al., 2008). The majority of participants were exposed between the ages of 14 and 17 (Sabina, et al., 2008). Males were found to be more apt to view online pornography and be exposed to more types of materials (Sabina, et al., 2008). The exposure to explicit materials before the age of 13 was uncommon in the study (Sabina, et al., 2008). It found that men were more likely to intentionally view pornography, while women were more likely to report being exposed involuntarily (Sabina, et al., 2008). The people in the sample were found to have been exposed to a considerable amount of internet pornography before the age of 18, finding that 93% of men and 63% of women had been exposed (Sabina, et al., 2008). The study found that among these college students, there was a substantial range in how participants responded about their reactions (Sabina, et al., 2008). The study included emotions attached to the viewing of those explicit materials (Sabina, et al., 2008). While some of the participants in the study were found have mostly positive feelings, there were still many that felt differently (Sabina, et al., 2008). Men (80%) reported higher levels of sexual excitement than women (27%), while more women experienced disgust (51%) and embarrassment (73%) (Sabina, et al., 2008). The majority of participants said that online pornography did not have a strong effect on them (Sabina, et al., 2008). Although this sample points to certain findings, generalizations cannot be made from the sample composed out of one institute. There has been little research into the exposure of internet pornography on youth.
In a separate study, researchers studied the attitudes about pornography and the amount of exposure in a sample of college students (Lottes, I., Weinberg, M., & Weller, I., 1993). The participants reported that pornographic materials had both positive and negative effects (Lottes, I., Weinberg, M., & Weller, I., 1993). The study found that participants that were women, religious, or reported lowered sexual activity responded more negatively to pornographic materials (Lottes, I., Weinberg, M., & Weller, I., 1993). It is important to note that this study was conducted during the infancy of the internet and does not reflect how the proliferation of the internet contributes to the consumption and effects of pornography on a college population.
In another study, researchers focused on the correlations between the acceptance of pornography and its use within a sample population of adults aged 18 to 26 (Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L. M., Nelson, L. J., Olson, C. D., Barry, C. M., & Madsen, S. D., 2008). There were 813 participants who were university students in the United States (Carroll, et al., 2008). The sample completed questionnaires online about use of pornographic material and their acceptance of such material (Carroll, et al., 2008). The study found that 67% of men and 49% of women saw the viewing of pornography as acceptable (Carroll, et al., 2008). This finding showed a marked difference between men and women on their acceptance of pornography (Carroll, et al., 2008).
These three research studies found either the acceptance of pornography or the exposure to pornography. None of them, however, made a direct correlation between the exposure and negative or positive feelings towards pornography. The first study concludes emotions felt by the person after being exposed to viewing such explicit materials but doesn't offer their attitude towards pornography itself in relation to exposure. Given the lack of correlational study between the two specifically, I propose the following research question,
RQ1: Does exposure to explicit materials influence the acceptance of pornography?
In regard to research on pornography, there is substantially more emphasis placed on self-perceptions than perceptions of others.
In one study the researchers analyzed the self-perceived effects of the consumption of pornographic material in a sample population of men and women aged 18 to 30 (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007). These effects were broken down into five separate categories: sexual behavior, knowledge of sex, life, and perceptions of the opposite gender, and attitudes on sex (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007). The survey then assessed the populations attitudes, knowledge, and perception of pornography. The participants reported very little in the way of negative effects (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007). Although the overall finding was more positive, there were several categories that men reported a more negative effect due to their pornographic consumption (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007). Most participants reported generally positive effects, with men reporting more positively than women (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007). The overall finding was that the sample population believe that pornography had made a positive impact on their lives (Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M., 2007).
In another study, the researchers analyzed the self-perceptions on pornographic use in a sample population of 84 college-aged males (Michael P. Twohig , Jesse M. Crosby & Jared M. Cox, 2009). Specifically, the researchers wanted to see if those students viewing internet pornography saw their viewing as problematic and whether the amount of consumption could relate to how it would impact them (Michael P. Twohig , Jesse M. Crosby & Jared M. Cox, 2009). The study found that approximately 50% of the population viewed pornography (Michael P. Twohig , Jesse M. Crosby & Jared M. Cox, 2009).The findings described mostly negative outcomes being experienced based on what the participants viewed as problematic behavior. The researchers in this study questioned the limitations of their own study and excluded participants that may skew results.
These two studies found varying results that were dependent on a multitude of factors such as gender, consumption, knowledge, behavior, etc. The findings could not make a conclusive determination based on the sample population. The previous studies did not gather any data on possible correlations between exposure to explicit materials and the perceptions of people that use those materials, so I propose the following,
RQ2: Does exposure to explicit materials influence the perceptions of people that use it?
Methods
The participants in this study will be college students aged (18 to 24) from the University of Iowa. The sample population will complete an anonymous* online survey.
The participants will be asked a number of questions that are representative of the three fundamental features described for this study: exposure to explicit materials on the internet, level of acceptance towards such materials, and how participants perceive those who use explicit materials on the internet.
To measure the exposure to explicit materials on the internet, I will be utilizing a chart from a separate study on exposure of internet pornography on youth (Sabina, C., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D., 2008). The first part of the questionnaire will determine if and at what age the participants were first exposed, starting from the age of 8 to 17. Then they will be given a chart with checkboxes describing the different types of explicit material.
In order to measure the level of acceptance or disagreement with explicit materials the participants will be presented with a Likert scale and have the option of putting "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree".
The final piece of the questionnaire will include several scenarios in which the participants will answer as to their perceptions of the characters. The use of scenarios as opposed to general questions is lessen the possibility of a skew in the results. The participants will be less likely to have a bias when a situation doesn't involve generalized others. Generalized others are the majority of people that aren't significant to a person.
Sabina, C., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2008). The nature and dynamics of internet pornography exposure for youth. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 691-693. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.0179
Michael P. Twohig , Jesse M. Crosby & Jared M. Cox (2009) Viewing internet pornography: for whom is it problematic, how, and why?, Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 16(4), 253-266, DOI: 10.1080/10720160903300788
Lottes, I., Weinberg, M., & Weller, I. (1993). Reactions to pornography on a college campus: For or against? Sex Roles, 29(1-2), 69-89.
Hald, G. M., & Malamuth, N. M. (2007). Self-perceived effects of pornography consumption. Springer Science Business Media, 614-625. doi:10.1007/s10508-007-9212-1
Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L. M., Nelson, L. J., Olson, C. D., Barry, C. M., & Madsen, S. D. (2008). Pornography Acceptance and Use Among Emerging Adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23(1), 6-30. doi:10.1177/0743558407306348