Science Has Finally Weighed In On How Porn Affects Married Couples
Good news for porn fans…
When it comes to porn, the world is enormously divided on whether it’s good for you, or if it’s bad and ruining your life, as well as your relationships.
But even though we don’t know the full truth about the health benefits or woes of porn consumption, one thing is certain: everyone loves porn, and will never stop jacking (or jilling) off to it.
Some studies say that watching porn with your wife in moderation is fantastic for your relationship, and helps keep your sex life steamy and exciting. I like those studies.
Other studies, however, say porn is the devil’s work, and will do nothing but drag your marriage straight into the depths of hell. I do not like those studies, and I think they’re bullshit.
Even though I’m a believer in the former claim, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. But still, those who say porn is bad are wrong. Really wrong.
However, in a new study titled “Till Porn Do Us Part?”, published in the Journal of Sex Research, the argument leans towards the negative end of the spectrum, because the results suggest that when married couples start watching porn, their risk of divorce doubles. Yikes.
For the study 2,000 married adults were surveyed about their relationships a total of three times over the course of four years, and were asked questions such as “Have you seen an X-rated movie in the last year?”
As you can tell, it’s blindingly obvious that that’s not a very good question, and a horrible way to assume correlation between porn consumption and relationship satisfaction. Assuming the bare minimum, it’s highly unlikely that watching a porno once in the past year can lead to the demise of a relationship.
Plus, it’s not possible to know whether the relationship fell apart because of porn or because of other factors, such as straight up personality incompatibility…or if the participants started watching porn because they got bored of their spouse.
As pointed out by Dr. Justin Lehmiller for Playboy, a study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior revealed that sexual satisfaction increases during the first year of marriage, but then we start to get bored, so satisfaction and the frequency of sex dips, which is why people seek novelty to relieve that boredom.
And there’s a reason for that. After we get bored of sex and lose interest, it comes right back if we add some novelty to our sex life, be it by introducing sex toys, trying new positions, hooking up with other people, or watching porn together.
This phenomenon is called the Coolidge Effect, which got its name when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and his wife made some observations about chickens hoeing around on a government farm. Fun fact!
With that said, porn is beneficial for relationships, because when you get bored of the monotony of following the same sex routine for too long, it’s a lot healthier to just open up Pornhub and watch a porno together instead of cheating on your wife.
Need more evidence that porn is good for your relationship? Because I have more.
According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, porn can increase sexual sensitivity in men and make them hornier than usual, and for most dudes, greater sexual sensitivity isn’t a bad thing, as long as you don’t lose yourself and bust that coveted nut too soon.
Another study found that watching porn with your partner is one of the best things you can do for your relationship, because it turns out that couples who watch porn together get really hot for each other, which is fantastic. That’s what we want.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that if watching porn was bad for relationships and led to divorce, divorce rates wouldn’t be at a 40-year low.
Convinced? Great. Suck on that, porn haters.
H/T: Playboy