Journal of Sex Research最新文献

Pornography has become increasingly prevalent and normalized within society, raising questions about how today's adolescents might differ in their responses to and attitudes toward pornography compared to earlier generations. This study begins to fill this gap by comparing cross-sectional data from two cohorts of high school students in Sweden in 2004 (n  = 4,266, mean age = 18.15, SD  = 0.74, 53.9% girls) and 2020-21 (n  = 3,256, mean age = 18.20, SD  = 0.61, 55.4% girls). Gender-stratified bivariate analyses and logistic regression models were performed to examine the impact of survey year on outcomes. Results reveal an increase in frequent pornography use among both genders and a narrowing of the gender gap in responses and attitudes by 2020-21. Boys reported decreased arousal responses, fewer positive emotional responses, and were less inclined to imitate the behaviors seen in pornography. Girls were less averse to and upset by the pornography they encountered. Both genders became more tolerant of pornography, yet more critical of its purported benefits. Notable gender differences remain, especially with girls being more likely to recognize pornography as degrading and exploitative. These findings underscore the need for educational strategies that foster critical understandings of pornography and its societal impact.

Racial preferences are sometimes encountered in the sphere of dating, romance, and sex. Using an experimental design, 100 White American participants and 100 American participants of Color were exposed to a mock dating profile that either contained a disclosure of racial preference (i.e., "White guys/girls only") or did not. Owners of a profile disclosing a racial preference were perceived as more racist, less attractive, and were also rated less positively in a global sense than owners of a profile that did not disclose a preference. Participants were also less willing to connect with them. Additionally, participants who viewed a dating profile disclosing a racial preference reported greater negative affect and lower positive affect than participants who viewed a profile that did not disclose a preference. These effects were largely consistent across both White participants and participants of Color. These findings demonstrate that racial preferences in the intimate sphere are generally responded to unfavorably, both by people for whom rejection is implied by the preferences and by people who are personally unaffected by the preferences.

Pornography use is a common sexual activity engaged in mostly alone, including for partnered individuals. Evidence concerning the benefits and costs of solitary pornography use for romantic relationship quality is mixed and may vary depending on the circumstances of pornography use, including partner knowledge of one's solitary use. Adopting a dyadic daily diary and longitudinal design, we examined the associations between knowledge of a partner's solitary pornography use and one's own and the partner's relationship satisfaction and intimacy on the same day, and trajectories over one year. A convenience sample of 217 couples completed daily surveys over 35 days and self-reported measures three times over one year. Each participant reported if they used pornography today and whether their use was known by their partner. Findings showed that when an individual's solitary pornography use was unknown by their partner, they reported lower same-day relationship satisfaction and intimacy as well as a lower initial level of relationship satisfaction. When an individual's solitary pornography use was known, they reported higher intimacy over one year and their partner reported lower intimacy over one year. Findings underscore the complexity of the relational context surrounding solitary pornography use in couples, in particular the partner's knowledge of pornography use.

Transgender or non-binary (TGNB) people are often present as protagonists of pornographic material. This study is the first to consider TGNB people as critical consumers of sexually explicit material. The sample included 212 self-identified TGNB individuals: 47.2% trans man/transmasculine, 15.6% trans woman/transfeminine and 37.3% non-binary. The online questionnaire consisted of a sociodemographic data collection, multiple-choice questions about preferences and habits concerning pornography, and open-ended questions about the sensations experienced when watching pornography, opinions on the representation of TGNB people in pornography, and their experience in watching pornographic videos with cisgender or TGNB protagonists. The answers were analyzed using the qualitative method of thematic analysis. We identified four themes that appeared across the responses: 1) heteronormativity and cisnormativity in pornography: the need for deconstructing the current cis-het-patriarchial normative and binary system, which dominates pornography except for the ethical porn industry, 2) cisgender pornography compared to TGNB pornography, 3) pleasurable sensations (e.g., identification and empowerment) associated with TGNB pornography, and 4) negative sensations (e.g., objectification and dysphoria) associated with TGNB pornography. Results are discussed in light of the objectification framework and the minority stress model.

Blued is the most popular gay dating app among Chinese sexual minority men. This study explored the textual self-presentation of the profiles on Blued in terms of motivation, appearance focus, and exclusion. A total of 10,000 profiles were randomly selected from a dataset of 197,516 profiles using an interval sampling method. A total of 230 features were developed, and six themes were extracted from 4,881 profiles based on content analysis. The themes were motivation, personal information, partner preference, partner non-preference, sexual preference, and communication preference. Body and age were the most commonly mentioned self-presentations, followed by attractiveness and masculinity. Self-presentations largely focused on the users' photos are prominent on Blued. Exclusion against those who were "overweight," "elderly," "unattractive," and "effeminate" was common. Network analysis was used to analyze and visualize the co-occurrence of these features. Appearance focus and exclusion features were linked with both "hookup" and "no hookup" motivations. Photo-focused communication was linked to the exclusion of others. "No hookup" motivation was associated with more social motivation (e.g., making friends and chatting) and trait-focused communication (e.g., being polite and permanent). "Hookup" motivation was associated with genital presentations (i.e., "big penis" and "like big penis"). Most self-presentation features of sexual preference were sexual role-specific. The results indicate a widespread focus on appearance and exclusion on Blued, which may negatively affect the mental health of Chinese sexual minority men.

Though research has examined pornography viewing frequency and its correlates in national samples, researchers have yet to assess how much pornography use the general population thinks is "average" for men and women. Drawing on data from a nationally representative sample of American adults (Men: N = 1,127; Women = 1,382; total mean age = 50.0, SD = 17.4), it was hypothesized that Americans' estimations of how much pornography use is average for men and women would be shaped by perceptual mechanisms as well as the influence of religious subculture. Results show that age, personal pornography use, self-reported addiction to pornography, and religiosity (for men), were associated with Americans' perceptions of what is average for others. The association with personal pornography use was amplified for same-gender estimations, and Americans estimated the average man views pornography more frequently than the average woman. Americans rarely reported viewing pornography at higher rates than what they estimated for others. This study provides initial steps toward understanding gendered impressions of average pornography use and provides recommendations for how future research could explore differing mechanisms of same-gender and cross-gender perceptions.

It is a growing concern that the use of sex dolls and robots could affect human sexuality. This concern has led to a ban of child-like sex dolls in several countries and a call to ban adult-like sex dolls and robots by some scholars. However, empirical data is largely missing supporting this claim. Here, we present retrospective self-reported quantitative and qualitative data of a large sample (N = 224, 90.5% men, Mean age = 31 years, SD = 14.2) of teleiophilic (i.e., sexual orientation toward adults) and pedo-hebephilic participants. Using an online survey, we found that users reported an overall reduction in sexuality-related behaviors (e.g., porn consumption or visiting of sex workers) in response to doll ownership. Users in a relationship with a human were less affected by doll use, while those in a relationship with a doll reported greater effects. Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.

Pornography has become increasingly prevalent worldwide with the development of the Internet, and considerable research on the effects of pornography use has emerged. Based on existing research and the Pornography Problems Due to Moral Incongruence (PPMI) model, we examined problematic pornography use (PPU) as a mediator and moral disapproval of pornography use as a moderator in the links between pornography use frequency and mental health problems in a Chinese sample (N = 833). Our results support the completely mediated effect of PPU (ab = 0.16) and the moderated effect of moral disapproval of pornography use on the association between pornography use frequency and PPU. Pornography use frequency was strongly associated with PPU when participants experienced high moral incongruence (MI), and the indirect effect of PPU was weaker (ab = 0.13) at the lower level of moderator (-1 SD), and stronger (ab = 0.23) at the higher level of moderator (+1 SD). However, the direct effect of MI on mental health problems was not supported. This study advances our understanding of the internal mechanism between pornography use and mental health and extends the PPMI model to the Chinese cultural context (characterized as low religiosity and sexually conservative). The findings confirm the cross-cultural consistency of the PPMI model in China and highlight another important source of MI besides religiosity: cultural characteristics.

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD), recently recognized in the ICD-11 as an independent disorder, has been shown to be more prevalent in sexual minorities. However, we still lack studies investigating which factors contribute to CSBD and related behaviors in this group. In our cross-sectional study, we investigated the relationships between characteristics potentially contributing to CSBD and problematic pornography use (PPU) in sexual minority individuals: sexual minority stress (internalized sexual stigma, discrimination experiences, and openness about one's sexual orientation), perceived social support, and sexualized drug use (also more prevalent in sexual minorities). We adjusted for gender, age, sexual orientation, and the frequency of sexual behaviors. Cisgender sexual minority participants (n = 198, 72.7% men, 27.3% women; M_age = 27.13, SD = 7.78) completed an online survey. We conducted a two-step linear regression. In the first step, we introduced sociodemographic variables and the frequency of sexual activities. In the second step, we placed the predictors of main interest: perceived social support, minority stress measures, and the frequency of sexualized drug use. Our results showed that social support was negatively related to CSBD, while experiences of discrimination due to sexual orientation and engagement in sexualized drug use were associated with higher CSBD symptom severity. Internalized sexual stigma related to greater PPU severity. The discussed relationships were weak to moderate in strength. Implications of current results for therapy and diagnosis of CSBD in sexual minorities are discussed. The role of minority stressors and other factors specific to sexual minorities requires further exploration to design well-suited therapeutic interventions.

We examined the acceptability of Humpr - an interactive, online tool developed to educate adolescent sexual minority males (ASMM) about how to safely navigate sexual networking applications (SNA). We developed Humpr as part of a larger HIV intervention trial in the U.S. In Humpr, 218 ASMM aged 14-20 (M_age = 17.18) created a mock dating profile, explored simulated user profiles, learned health-related information (e.g. slang indicating HIV/STI risks and/or drug use intentions), and then gave feedback regarding acceptability of the tool. Results showed that Humpr was very well-received, with 94% overall approval rates. Reasons for liking Humpr were evenly split between liking it for educational and entertaining reasons. Participants praised Humpr for its realistic design and interactive interface that allowed them to engage and connect with the tool. The majority (61%) had used SNAs in the past, but many still reported learning something new from Humpr. Participants also appreciated the acknowledgment of SNA use in ASMM and how the education was implemented in an open and judgment-free way. Topics learned from Humpr included how to be safe on SNAs and warning signs for HIV/STI risks. Suggested areas of improvement included having an opt-out option for those who do not wish to participate for any reason (e.g. discomfort) and additional educational content (e.g. consequences of being a minor on SNAs). Taken together, the findings offer preliminary evidence for the potential educational benefits of digital tools like Humpr for ASMM with and without prior SNA exposure.